How RWBY Should Have Ended
by Christopherweeblingjr
Summary: Let's all be honest with ourselves here: Sometimes a story just needs a better ending.
1. End of the End of the Beginning

Everything has gone to hell for Beacon Academy. Cinder Fall has claimed the full power of the Fall Maiden, the Atlas Army was out of commission, there was no way to get transmissions in or out of Vale, Yang had lost her arm, Blake had been stabbed, and a giant Grimm Dragon, who for the sake of convenience will be named Kevin, was circling the school, spawning and attracting more and more Grimm. Everything that could have gone wrong, has gone wrong.

"Okay, okay, don't worry. I'm pretty sure I have Glynda's number." Jaune said as Pyrrha gave him a look that said, 'What? Why?' Jaune, the oblivious idiot he was, didn't notice it and instead noticed the lack of Glynda on his phone. "Oh, come on, where is it?"

The duo then heard a large _boom_ as they saw a Golding light creek through the elevator door as Cinder flew to the top of the tower. The duo quickly realized that if Cinder was there than that would mean that Ozpin had failed to stop her. And if Ozpin had failed...

"Jaune, I need you to get to Vale and call for help." Pyrrha said. "I'll stall Cinder for as long as I can, buy you as much time as you need."

"Pyrrha, that is not a good idea. If she could take Ozpin, what are _you_ gonna do?" Jaune asked.

"I just need to keep her busy, even if it means I have to-" Pyrrha began attempting to give her brave last words.

"No, Pyrrha, listen to me: Cinder's plan had one big error in it that anyone could see."

Pyrrha's eyes then lit up in surprise as she turned towards Jaune. "Well?"

* * *

"It's Jaune!" Weiss said as she saw the caller ID on her scroll, under normal circumstances she would have simply hit ignore, but tonight. "Jaune, where are you?"

" _Right in front of Ozpin's tower. Listen, Weiss, I need you and Ruby to head to the group of students that are leaving for a the safe zone._ "

"Wha-why? Jaune, have you seen our situation?" Ruby asked her blond friend over the phone.

" _Yes, but Cinder's attack had one fatal flaw; she attacked during the Vytal Festival Tournament._ "

"Yeah, s-Oh!" Weiss gasps as she realized what Jaune was referring to. "Ruby, you head over to Pyrrha and Jaune, I'll go rally up our army."

* * *

"EVERYONE, LISTEN TO ME!" Weiss shouted out at the groups of students that were running away with their tale between their legs, for some of them literally. "I know this situation seems dire, perhaps even grim, no puns intended. But take a look around here. We have hundreds of thousands of students, all of them with incredible powers and monstrous weapons capable of doing so much destruction, and we're having them run _away_ from the fight? I know this seems bad, but if we band together, we can take Cinder, we can take Kevin, we can take Beacon _back_! Now who's with me?!"

Everyone looked at the white haired girl for a second before Port spoke up. "Everyone, get into the ships."

"Bu-"

"TheelevatorswillnotbeabletohandleallofourweightandWeisswillnotbeabletoliftallofyouupthereusingherGlyphs." Oobleck said in his Oobleck way.  
"Pilots. Iwantyoutochangeyourcoursedramaticallyandflyourstudentstothetopofthattower."

All the despair in the room quickly washed away as everyone began to comprehend what Oobleck just said. As the Blue Lanterns would say, 'All will be well.'

* * *

Cinder was having a good day. Take the powers of the Fall Maiden, check. Calm down the Grimm and have him take residents at Beacon, in progress. Be the greatest evil mastermind in the history of Remanent, that was complete from the get go.

But then she heard the grinding of the elevator shaft and realized that Pyrrha wanted to die desperately. Well, she could go for a little throw down.

"It's unfortunate you were promised a power that was never truly yours." Cinder began as the doors slid open. "But take comfort in knowing-"

Her eyes widened as she realized-

"-Ruby Rose, Jaune Arc, Yang Xiao Long with one of Penny's swords, Coco Adel, _and_ Sun Wukong are here with you!?" Thanks for taking my job, Cinder.

"Yep." Pyrrha answered nonchalantly.

Cinder stared at the group in disbeliever before her signature evil smile crept back over her face. "Ha ha, do you really think _that's_ going to be enough to stop me _and_ Kevin?"

"Nope." Jaune said before pointing out the window. "But they will be."

Cinder turned for her eyes to widen in disbelieve as she saw several Bullheads fly up towards the tower, several of them opened themselves to allow the hunter students to jump out onto Kevin's back and began attacking him. The Grimm, startled by the attack, flew away in a vain attempt to shake them off him. He knew he should have stayed in that mountain.

The rest of the ships, however, flew in closer and allowed the students within them to climb into the tower, each one readying their weapons for the fight with Cinder. Quickly the room was filled with all the students forming a ring around the evil seductress.

"Now then, Cinder Fall," Pyrrha began, pointing her weapon towards the woman. "Do you surrender?"

"Please say no." Ruby said as she cocked Crescent Rose.

* * *

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Superman and Batman laughed as Ruby, Pyrrha, and Jaune had finished that part of their story in the Hero Cafe.

"So-So let me get this straight." Superman began through his laughter. "Cinder attacked a school that was filled with students training to become these superhero celebrity like people on the very day that every other school was bringing their students training to become these superhero celebrity like people, and she didn't think you would use that to rally up an army against her?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Ruby said as she sipped her coffee.

"Seriously?" Batman questioned. "The Joker's plan to throw Joker venom into the water main so that all the fish would have crazy Joker smiles and claim copy-rights on them makes more sense than that."

"Tell me about it." Jaune said.

"So, what happened to Kevin?" Superman asked.

"Well, after we finished with Cinder, we all ran over to where he crashed to see if they needed any help." Pyrrha said. "And then an even awesome-er battled ensured."

"We'd love to tell you guys about it, but words can't do it justice." Ruby said.

"On the subject of Cinder, what did you do with the chick?" Batman asked before drinking his coffee.

"We knocked her out and put her in one of those Aura sucking chamber thingies." Jaune said before finishing his drink.

"Yep, you guys are looking at the new Fall Maiden." Pyrrha said, gesturing to herself. "I know I was supposed to keep it a secret, but I figured since the cat's out of the bag."

"That reminds me, how's the rest of your team doing Ruby?" Superman asked.

"Well, Yang's new robot arm is currently in the works, and Blake is making a surprisingly fast recovery." Ruby said before munching on a cookie. "Which is a good thing, too, apparently Cinder was working for someone else, and we are gonna need everybody's help to take _her_ down."

"Sounds like you got a lot on your plate, Rose." Batman said.

"Yeah."

"Who knows, you might get an actual part in the next Volume." Superman stated.

"Ye-Wait, what?" Ruby asked.

"Well, it's not exactly a secret that the people writing your story seem to be allergy to you or something, they refuse to give you any character development in any way." Batman stated.

"That is not true, during our fight with Kevin, my latent abilities activated." Ruby stated.

"You're what?" Superman asked.

"Yeah, apparently there's this incredibly rare trait that people with Silver Eyes are the most powerful force against the Grimm." Ruby stated. "If it weren't for me, Kevin would never have been defeated."

"Rare trait? I saw several people with those Silver Eyes back when all the schools were being given their missions." Batman said.

"Yeah, Ruby. That's not a rare trait, it actually looked pretty common to me." Superman stated.

"B-But-But I'm the main character, the show's named after a team that's named after me. I'm the leader of the team. I-I have to be the main character, right?" Ruby looked among the table to see if she'd get any support.

She didn't get any.

"Sorry, Ruby." Superman said.

"Look on the bright side, Rose," Batman began. "At least you contributed in some manor. That's something right."

"Yeah, I guess." Ruby moped.

"Hold on, how did you see all of the students _and_ get a good enough look to tell all of their eye colors?" Pyrrha questioned the Dark Knight.

"BECAUSE I'M BATMAN!" He responded.

* * *

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Laughed everyone at the Villain Pub as Cinder explained to them how her plan failed.

"Quit laughing at me!" Cinder yelled out. "It's not funny!"

"You know, you know, she's actually right. It's not funny." Joker said as he got himself under control. "It's actually quite sad."

"See!"

"It's quite sad that someone would come up with a plan that bad! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" The Joker let out one of his signature sinister cackles.

Cinder just groaned at that.

"So, Sunder, what are you going to do now?" Voldemort asked the depressed villain.

"It's Cinder. And I... I don't know."

"Really? You spent so much time concocting this plan, and you never even gave any thought to an All Else Fails?" Joker questioned.

"It seemed so perfect."

"Cinder, a super villain _always_ needs a backup plan." Joker stated. "Take my plans for example: I designed them all so that no matter what choice Batman made, he still lost."

"You're last one didn't work out so well."

"That was because someone didn't set the charges right, and even then I held a detonated because I though 'If you want something done right, do it yourself.' I couldn't set the charges myself, so I rigged up a spare detonator." Joker said.

"Yeah, I know." Cinder moped. "You guys wouldn't be in need of a secretary or something, would ya?"

"Sorry, Cinder, you're on your own." Voldemort said before drinking his beverage.

"Well, hopefully I'll play a big role in the next Volume." Cinder stated.

* * *

 **You know, I've always wanted to do one of these. And I have plenty of ideas of how something in RWBY could have been done better. I could set up a one HISHE scenario per chapter kinda deal. But for now I'll let you guys have this and let me know if I should do more.**

 **... God, I am just doing everything I can to push HoodWitch off, aren't I?**


	2. Over Before It Ended

**Well, this story was very well received, and like I said, I have a few ideas of how RWBY should have ended. With nothing else to say, on to the story.**

* * *

"And that is how we're gonna steal the rest of the Fall Maiden's powers." Cinder explained, gesturing to a large white board with vague drawings of what was supposed to go down. "Any questions?"

"Yeah, I got one:" Mercury began, had raised. "So for this plan to work, I am going to need to get my extremely expensive and hard to repair mechanical leg broken and then stay low for a while under the cover of our team heading back to Haven so I could be with my family. So don't you think it's gonna raise some suspicion that Emerald is in the audience?"

"Not at all." Cinder said.

"Why?"

"Trust me, they'll be too stupid to notice." Cinder replied. "Any other questions?"

"Two, actually" Roman began. "So, according to your plan, I'm going to get captured so that after we raise doudt among the crowd, Neo can break into the ship I'm being held in so that I can implant a virus to override all the robots to do our bidding. First off: If Neo can be able to break into the ship and waltz around it no problem, than what's the point of me getting captured? I could escape the police, fly up their with Neo when needed, and nothing would change."

"You've be hogging the spotlight for two whole volumes, Roman, it gives the rest of us some time to look cool." Cinder stated.

"Secondly: Why would the ship that they hold their prisoners in be the same ship they use to control their robots with? Don't you think they'll, I don't know, keep me in a ship with _less valuable equipment_."

"Roman, do you want that paycheck?"

"Yes-"

"Than don't question my plan." Cinder stated. "Anything else?"

Everyone raise their hands.

"Good, now get to work."

 ** _-Or-_**

Ruby was racing down the hallway to the stadium. She needed to get out fast, Penny was in danger. She didn't know exactly what these guys planned to do, but pitting a robot against a girl with magnetism as her primary power was probably a bad thing.

She had made it through the door just in time to see Penny throwing all her swords at Pyrrha and the athlete throw a all too powerful magnetic blast at the girl. The sword quickly retreated back to their master-

-Who a mere second after the blast was launched to the other end of the arena.

Penny collided against the wall with a loud _Thud!_ as her swords impaled themselves into it, the buzzer when off in perfect sync with it, and the strings, going _over_ Penny's shoulders, never had a chance to rap around her in any area.

There was a loud murmur among the crowd as they tried to figure out what just happened. Pyrrha having magnetic powers, that was common knowledge, she couldn't keep a secret to saver her life. But Penny being thrown back by it...

" _Um, okay... I was expecting Penny to get ripped apart..._ " A voice came over the loud speakers. " _But, this doesn't really change much about my speech, I guess. Just, let me find the right place._ "

And so Penny was able to help her friends fight off the threat, and the Grimm never attacked Amity Coliseum, allowing the students to have more energy to fight off the Grimm on the ground.

 ** _-Or-_**

The Grimm raced through the treeline, seeking out the sweet, delectable sent of fear, grieve, anger. So much negativity! And where there was negativity, there was life to snuff out.

The leading Grimm jumped out of the forestry and slowed to a halt as they took in the sight in front of them, causing the herd behind them to stop as well.

They all stood their, jaws dropped, as they final processed the image of giant man controlled robotic mech suits with several guns pointed at them.

" _ **Oh, hello!**_ " The lead mech said as the pilot readied the guns. " _ **And goodbye**_ **.** "

There was then a lot of noise as the bangs of the guns firing, whizzing of bullets and missiles, and complete decimation of Grimm all mixed together to form a perfect orchestra of destruction.

* * *

"What do you mean 'The Grimm are dead!?'" Cinder yelled into her scroll as she questioned, practically interrogating Emerald as the mint haired girl gave her leader a status update.

"I mean the Atlas military put a fuck-ton of those mechs between Vale and the Grimm and obliterated the things, not sure how that's so hard to understand." Emerald said.

"They weren't supposed to do that!" Cinder shrieked.

"What made you think they wouldn't?"

Cinder attempted to come up with a answer, and quickly noted that she had none. "Well, why weren't they effected by the virus?"

"They're manually controlled, Cinder. The computers can only really effect the targeting systems." Emerald stated. "So, what's plan B?"

"... There is none." Cinder said reluctantly.

"Oh, _joy_."

 ** _-Or-_**

Roman was currently engaged in his favorite form of inflight entertainment, pressing random buttons and hoping it dind't blow the ship up. He had fired missles at anyone unlucky enough to be close enough to get hit by rocket propelled explosives with no locked in targets, thereby putting the _miss_ in missles, set off the emergency flares, and dropped the entire ships food reserve. Lunch was no longer on the menu.

Neo made an audible eh-hem, completely contrasting how she normally spoke, and handed Roman the virus scroll over his shoulder. He smirked, nodded, and placed the device into the slot on the control panel.

" _Please enter pass-code._ " The computer requested, displaying a small window below the text.

"What? Pass-code?" Roman questioned. "It's almost as if this ship has security measures to prevent something like this from happening!"

Neo looked at Roman for a moment as he bent over and looked over all the keys marked with numbers, letters, and symbols. "Well, these guys are normally idiots, let's try the simplest solution: 'Pass-code.'"

" _Pass-code invalid, two attempts remaining._ "

"Well then, let's try something less stupid. 'Pass-code' in 733t 5p34k."

" _Pass-code excepted, access granted_."

"Wow, that was easier than I-"

" _Caution, a virus has been detected._ "

"MOTHERFUCKER! IT'S ALMOST AS IF THEY DON'T WANT PEOPLE HIJACKING THEIR ARMIES!" Roman announced as Neo simply sighed and began planning their escape.

 ** _-Or-_**

All of the students leaving the coliseum watched in horror as Ironwood's ship's engines burst apart, the flash of his revolver was visible as his ship fell from the sky like the hunk of metal attempting to defy the laws of gravity it was. Looking down, they saw the robots that were designed to protect them turn their guns against any and every Hunter in sight, they didn't know what to think.

Well, no, not all of them.

Ruby quickly turned around and ran out of the ship, using her semblance to leap an incredible distance before using her cloak to glide to the Coliseum. She quickly found her locker, set the coordinates for the ship that should be controlling them, and blasted off towards it.

Upon seeing her target, she jumped off the locker and landed on the ship that had gone wrong, her locker doomed to fall to the mayhem below. Without a care for it, she zipped to the door leading into the ship.

Thank Oum she didn't have the mass of a Paladin, otherwise the thud she made when she landed might have been loud enough to alert Roman that someone was attacking. She had to fight her way through some Griffins of course, but due to the size of the ship, Roman heard nothing.

Putting her weapon away, she quietly strolled into the control room, Roman and Neo too preoccupied with a game of Airship Hunt to take notice to her quiet footsteps. She slowly strolled up behind them and reached behind her for her trusted scythle and Roman had just beaten Neo's high score of one.

The criminal duo heard a loud mechanical sound as Ruby unsheathed her scythe, the two turned around just in time for Ruby to swing the scythe at both of their heads like a batter would a baseball. Roman was knocked out, and Neo, with Aura lowered greatly, and Ruby, who's had time to recharge her Aura from her last fight, duked it out.

The result of that fight being that Ruby won, incapacitating the pink and brown haired girl.

"Thank Oum." Ruby sighed as she took out the scroll they had implanted. "For a few minutes their, I thought I might have to fight you guys outside!" She set the computer to hard reset, hoping that would wipe the virus from it's system, if not she could take care of it manually, and then proceeded to put Roman and Neo in the cell.

 ** _-Or-_**

Roman Torchwick was having the exact opposite of a bad time, he was having the best time of his life. If their was one thing he enjoys, it's sticking it to all those people who enforce laws for a living. And there was just a delicious taste of irony in the idea that the Atlesian Mother Ship was taking down its fleet.

He was in the middle of watching as five ships crashed into each other, commenting that the world's most perfect game of Tetras doesn't fall into place that well, before he heard a load _Thud_! coming from the back of the ship. Neo looked at him and asked if he wanted her to go check it out.

"Nah, I got a better idea." Roman said as he sat back in the command chair and buckled his seat-belt. "You're gonna want to buckle up, Neo. Cause I'm gonna do as a once great video game theory channel once said and-"

DO AN AILERON ROLL

(Z OR R TWICE)!

* * *

"-AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-" Ruby yelled as she fell out of the sky at a alarmingly fast pace due to the ship she was running across spontaneously flipping upside-down, allowing for the laws of gravity to remove her from the ship.

* * *

 **The description of this story says 'Some stories need a better ending." I did not specify that was intended solely for the heroes.**

 **That being said, you'd be surprised what comes to you when you're writing down how a story should have ended. The ones about the computer security and how Ruby shouldn't have shook the ship came to me when I was writing the final scenario. Inspiration works in mysterious ways.**

 **Anyway, that takes care of all the scenarios I had for the Volume 3 final arc, next time we'll be tackling some endings for Volume 2 and work backwards if at all possible. See you all next time.**


	3. No Plan Survives Contact With The Enemy

**So yeah, remember when I said that we'd be starting how Volume 2 should have ended this chapter?**

 **I lied.**

 **I'm sorry, guys, but their are so many things that the writers needed to ignore for that story to work. I promise we'll start Volume 2 next time. That said, onto the story.**

* * *

"Okay, guys, time to finish this." Jaune said as his team was on the verge of victory over team BRNZ. Finally, a way to prove himself to the rest of the school. After this, no more underdog, no more jokes. When people speak his name, they'd speak it with praise. "Ren, Nora, FLOWER POWER!"

"Wait, what?" Nora asked her team leader, neither she nor her partner moving from their spot.

All of Jaune's hopes and dreams where destroyed by that one word.

"F-Flower Power, Nora. It's the formation I devised for you two." Jaune stuttered, unwilling to believe that they didn't know what he was talking about.

Their shrugs made a more convincing argument.

Team BRNZ, meanwhile, was just watching them in confusion along with the rest of the crowd. This was a team from Beacon. This was the team with the famous Pyrrha Nikos on it. And this is how they behaved in the middle of a battle? The four could hardly believe it.

Brawnz put his hands in front of his face, ready to call out to them, before Roy put a hand on his shoulder. "Brawnz, if they can't stay focused during a fight, that's their problem. I say we show them why."

Brawnz grinned upon hearing this and nodded to the rest of his team. In unison, three of them began walking towards their opponents while May got back into her sniping position.

"Pyrrha, you and I are Arkos. It's that thing, when we take our shields? Remember?" Jaune explained to his partner, no one noticing the men of team BRNZ walking up behind them.

"'Arkos?'" Pyrrha asked.

"It's our names put together, I could come up with anythin-" Jaune said before he felt a tap on his shoulder, he turned around with an agitated look on his face. Though before he could asked 'what?' he got a bladed knuckle punch to the jaw as the rest of Team BRNZ began their attack.

Team JNPR was taking completely by surprise and had no time to formulate a new strategy. Because of this, they took a large amount of punishment dished out by bullets, blades and punches until all their Auras got knocked into the red.

"The winners are team BRNZ!" Port yelled out after the buzzard sounded.

"... Well... Didn't see that coming." Mercury stated as the crowd began celebrating a win for Vacuo.

"Take Pyrrha off the list." Cinder said annoyed as she burned the pile of popcorn in her hand.

* * *

"And then I said, 'Kid, if you want a shotgun kick-blast to the face, keep it up.'" Mercury recited to the only person in the room listening as Cinder was doing who knows that on her scroll. "Sure enough, he kept going, so I-"

"Oh." Cinder stated as she began reading the blueprints on her scroll and began formulating the details in her head.

"What?" Emerald asked.

"Oh, nothing, we're just gonna make a slight alteration to the plan." Cinder stated before her eyes went wide as she recalled an important detail. "Or at least we _would be_ if Pyrrha hadn't lost in the first round." She growled out.

"Huh, that's too bad. I'm still gonna get paid, right?" Mercury asked.

 _ **-Or-**_

For the first time since initiation, Coco felt nervous. She didn't like that, she should be making this girl nervous, not the other way around. If Coco was nervous, that meant Emerald had the upper hand on her. She kept scanning the tree line, trying to find anything that could clue her in to where the mint haired girl was. She was Coco Adel, she doesn't lose.

Coco might not have been big on strategy, but now she was trying to figure out what to do as she pointed her gun at every slight noise, reminding her of initiation. She spun around again at the sound of rustling when she realized that she was wasting time.

Coco pulled the trigger on her gun, aiming straight in front of her, no angle, no tilts, and started letting lose on _everything_.

"TIMBER!" She yelled, though she could barely hear it over the sound of her gun firing and the trees falling. After a minute or so of firing, she released the trigger and looked around her.

What was once a forest was now a field of fallen trees. And in the middle of one of the piles, lay Emerald, trying to reach her pistol.

Coco smirked at this and casually walked over to her opponent and kicked the gun back into the center of the arena, she then knelt down in front of the girl.

"Come on now, I know I'm hot, but you shouldn't get a bloody nose because of it." Coco said as she turned her gun back into it's bag form.

"Bloody no-" Emerald didn't have time to finish before Coco smacked her face with it, breaking her nose and knocking her Aura down to 0.

Coco then turned her attention to Mercury, how had just defeated Yatsuhashi using one of the geysers. Coco stepped into the center of the arena and began shooting at Mercury. Of course, he managed to avoid each and every shot, moving away from Yatsuhashi.

"You missed!" He yelled at her.

"Wasn't aiming at ya!" She yelled back.

It then occurred to Mercury that there was an awful lot of hissing around him, looking around, he saw that all the bullet holes Coco had left were now letting out steam. His eyes went wide as he realized what she had just done.

"I hate you, so much." Mercury growled at her.

 _*BOOM!*_

A new, gigantic geyser then went off right under his feet, propelling him high into the air. Coco watched as he smacked into the force-field above him. The geyser let out the last of it's steam and then Mercury fell quite a long ways down. The buzzard went off again, signaling that Coco had won.

"YOU TWO HAD _ONE JOB_!" Cinder yelled at her teammates.

 _ **-Or-**_

"And that is why Pyrrha Nikos will make a perfect Fall Maiden." Ozpin said to the group in front of him, gesturing to the large amount of papers littering his desk. "Any further questions?"

"Yes, a rather big one, I might add." Glynda began, a clearly annoyed scowl on her face. "Why the hell aren't one of us taking those powers?"

"Glynda, this is a very delicate operation, we can't rush into any of this-" Ozpin stated.

"Ozpin, no offense, but enough of the answers meant to avoid the question." Glynda stated. "I want you to think about this for a second: We're older, more experienced, more powerful, heck, we even have a better understanding of who the enemy is. So why the hell did you have us wait all those months to do this instead of pumping the Maiden powers into one of us the second we got the chance and have us go to town on those terrorists?!"

"Glynda, Glynda, you know how the Maidens work." Qrow said.

"Yeah, it's total bullshit, as you yourself will admit. But we have a way to work _around_ those rules." Glynda stated. "Even if it were a matter of gender, we can still transfer them to me. _Cinder_ managed to do it, and she's not all that younger than me."

"Glynda, even if it were possible, why would we give the power to you?" Ozpin asked.

"Maybe because I was able to hold off Cinder _without_ those powers, and with them I'd definitely be able to win, how's about that?" Glynda responded with a much more venomous glare.

"... That is actually a really good point." Ozpin sighed as he leaned on his desk with his hand on his forehead, probably ashamed that he didn't realize this sooner. "Head down to the Vault, we'll be down to conduct the transfer shortly."

* * *

Cinder sat back in her seat and took in the incredible battle in front of her. She was genuinely impressed with how well Mercury and Emerald were fighting against Coco and Yatsuhashi. Yes, she rigged the match in their favor, but Coco and Yatsuhashi were no jokes, even then. The fact that they were able to take out so much as one of them so far was impressive.

Cinder then heard what sounded like the rushing of air. Confused, she, along with a lot of the other audience members, looked to up to see something that she though impossible.

Glynda Goodwitch flew into the stadium, landed right in front of her, and grabbed her by her vest.

"This woman is plotting to destroy Vale." Glynda stated before flying out of the stadium, towing Cinder with her.

Everyone was confused by that, even the battle stopped as they all watched as Glynda took her prisoner out of the stadium.

" _Uh.. What just happened?_ " Port asked over the loudspeakers.

 _ **-Or -**_

"It sounds like you have two choices in front of you." Winter explained to her younger sister. "You can either call him, beg for his money back, and explain once more why you would want to study at Beacon over Atlas, or you could continue to explore Remnant, discovering more about the world and honestly, more about yourself."

"... It was really good to see you, Winter." Weiss stated.

"Oh, I am not leaving _yet_." Winter proclaimed. "From the way Ironwood has been acting, it is clear that something _big_ is about to transcend here. And I would not trust him and Ozpin to handle whatever it is on their own as far as I can launch them _without_ my Glyphs."

"So, you're gonna stay a little longer?" Weiss, asked, feeling a smile creep across her face.

"What did you think, I would only stay for 2 episodes after all the build up they gave me?" Winter questioned. "I will stay as long as it takes to resolve this whole ordeal." On that note, Weiss rapped her arms around her sister, and Winter responded accordingly.

 _ **-Or-**_

Cinder strolled confidently through the base room of Beacon Tower as pure anarchy raged outside the walls. The Grimm were doing their part perfectly, keeping all the students busy so that she could be able to get into the vault and achieve her goal.

She walked up to the elevator at the far side of it. To think that it wasn't Ozpin or his group, it wasn't the other Maidens, it wasn't even the students the school had that would require her to put forth the most effort to over come. It would simply be pressing the call elevator button.

Cinder's smirk faded, however, when the button failed to light up. The cruel pyromancer pressed the button a few more times to make sure it was functioning correctly.

She looked up at the indicator to see that it wasn't active, not even displaying which floor the elevator was on. She raised an eyebrow in confusion as she mentally questioned why this could be.

* * *

"We have successfully disabled all elevators in Beacon Tower, Headmaster Ozpin." A worker said over the scroll in Ozpin's hand.

"Thank you, you're contributions might just save this city." Ozpin said before hanging up and going back to the controls.

"Ozpin, I'm not sure that will slow Cinder down very much." Jaune voiced. "She could just melt the doo-"

"Don't worry, Jaune. I've got it all figured out." Ozpin stated.

* * *

Cinder landed on the roof of the elevator with a _Thud!_ that echoed up the shaft. She brought her hand down on the roof of the elevator sharply and quickly melted through it. Jumping into the elevator she then turned her attention to the doors in front of her. Summoning her powers again, she melted the doors and strolled into the underground room.

Inside she found a collection of fancy art pieces.

She quickly began a search of the area and found that this wasn't even close to the Vault she had been searching for. Her eyes glowed with fire as her powers began to ignite the air around her.

 _They had disabled the elevator on an_ art museum!? She thought as she began to melt into the floor slightly. She began taking deep breaths and walked back to the elevator shaft. _Okay, not a problem, I'll just jump to the Vault like I just did. Simple._

Walking up to the elevator shaft, Cinder quickly realized the problem with her plan. _Is the Vault above or bellow me?_

* * *

"I should have gone down from the start." Cinder muttered as she broke yet another door and walked into the Vault. Checking all the floors above her while they were still closer so she would need to use up less energy seemed like a pretty dumb idea now. Strolling into the Vault, she was then met with a sight that actually managed to horrify here.

The transfer had just finished, Pyrrha Nikos now had the rest of the Fall Maiden's powers.

Not only that, but she'd also need to fight Ozpin along side that.

Pyrrha looked at Cinder with a look of pure furry, the cause of the destruction of what had become her home standing before her filling her with great anger. The energy began to pore from Pyrrha's eyes as she used the powers bestowed upon her to levitate above the ground, using her magnetic powers to pull out her weapons.

"Tell me, Cinder." Pyrrha began growling. "Do you believe in destiny?"

"Y-yes." Cinder gulped.

"Good." Pyrrha began. "Then you know that I'm destined to kick your ass."

With the Fall Maiden's powers, along with the assistance of Ozpin, Pyrrha was able to defeat Cinder and remove the stolen powers from her. The red haired girl then used the power she now had to help fight off the invading Grimm. Needless to say, they didn't stand a chance.

Absolutely nothing went according to keikaku.

 _ **-Or-**_

Cinder tapped her foot impatiently as the indicator above the elevator door displayed each number as she descended towards the Vault. She knew that she should probably be more patient about this sort of thing, plus the elevator didn't exactly think it should move any faster than normal or play something other than the soul crushing loop it usually does. But by Oum was she exited for this!

The elevator finally let out a it's beautiful ding and Cinder let out a sigh of relieve. Almost there, almost done. All she had to do now was fire an arrow and-

The doors opened and 3 young women stood before her, eyes glowing with energy. It took Cinder a moment to process the fact that the Maidens of Summer, Spring, and Winter were standing before her.

"So," The Summer Maiden began. "You are the one who stole our sister's power?" Cinder was about to attempt to lie her way out of the situation before being interrupted. "Don't bother answering, I can feel the power within you."

"I'll be honest." The Spring Maiden began, pushing a hair behind her ear. "I expected someone with a cape."

"Doesn't matter." The Winter Maiden said, channeling her ice powers into her hands. "If you want the rest of our sister's powers, Cinder Fall, you're going to need to go through us!"

Fighting Glynda Goodwitch, Cinder could manage. Fighting Ozpin, Cinder could manage. Fighting Pyrrha Nikos, Cinder could manage. Fighting the other 3 Maidens at once...

"I surrender." Cinder reluctantly said, placing her hands behind her head and kneeling down before them.

"Yeah." The Winter Maiden said, freezing her hands in place, more to give Cinder a taste of how cold her ice can be than to actually restrain her. "Smart choice."

* * *

 **Well, that was a lot harder than expected. I know what you're all thinking, 'It shouldn't have been that hard, all you needed to do was take a moment from the show and change the outcome.' And while it does seem that simple at first glance, you then need to disqualify any moments that didn't have an impact on the plot. Even if Weiss grabbed Myrtenaster and took out Flynt with it, Team RWBY would most likely still choose Yang for the final round. I also had to disqualify anything that other authors have already done. And I'm not just talking about on Fanfiction either, look up How RWBY Volume 3 Should Have Ended by Bendorah, it brings up some pretty good and funny points. So with all this, I was actually quite limited on what to do for this chapter.**

 **Now then, I'd like to give you a few breve words about each scenario in the same order they're in.**

 **-This one actually came from the RWBY YMMV page, where it was noted how stupid it was that Team BRNZ didn't take advantage of JNPR arguing amongst themselves to wind the match, and considering that would have thrown a great bigger spanner into Cinder's plan, it qualifies her.**

 **-They showed off how powerful Coco's machine gun was in Breach, you've shown that she's clever enough to use it as a lawn mower in Lesson's Learned, why isn't she going crazy with it? Between Ruby breaking the sound barrier in Best Day Ever and this, Rooster Teeth seems to have a really bad problem with having their characters use up all their awesome early.**

 **-This is what happens when you A. Leave the age limits of the Maidens unconfirmed. And B. Not state the age of one of your characters. If Glynda is too old to be a Maiden, then it's shame on them for not explaining that better.**

 **-They hyped a character up, and then got rid of her after two episodes!? WHY? If she appears that little, what was the point? That would be like of Red vs. Blue season 13 built up the return of Sister. That said, the build up to Weiss's summon ability was handled a lot better than Ruby's Silver Eye ability.**

 **-I know that they probably wouldn't have many workers left to disable the elevator shaft with the entire school being attacked by Grimm, but the point still stands that Ozpin could have done** _ **something**_ **to slow Cinder down just in case. Plus, the idea of Ozpin tricking Cinder to run around an art museum looking for the Fall Maiden is just too funny to pass up.**

 **-This one came to me writing the above, there were 4 Maidens, right? Why didn't they call in the other 3 to do guard duty?**

 **Now then, as promised, the next update will be centered around Volume 2. And yes, I will be tackling the tailors and Grimm Eclipse. Though I'll probably get to Grimm Eclipse much later. And no, I'm not going to be tackling anything from Volume 4, I've given up all hope on this series and probably won't be able to stand another second of it no matter how many improvements they make. If you guys see any problems with it, write them yourselves if you feel that your up for the challenge.**


	4. Breach Aftershock

"Professor Ozpin, are you even listening to us?" The main council member bellowed, drawing Ozpin's attention back away from the window he was daydreaming through. Going by the confused look on his face, it was clear the answer to that question was no. "You have left us no choice, the Vytal Festival Tournaments cannot be broadcast, let alone held, if we are unable to ensure the safety of the citizens."

At this remark, Ozpin cocked an eyebrow while the council continued. "Therefore, we have reached out to the Atlas Council and together have decided that the best-"

"I am sorry, vague-Council-Member Number 3," Ozpin began, placing down his cup of coffee, letting the group know he was serious. "But while my students could not prevent the Grimm from getting _into_ the kingdom - Which given the circumstances, I doubt even Atlas soldiers could have prevented - They did an excellent job fighting the Grimm and keeping casualties to a minimum."

"You would have been over run if not for my soldiers, Ozpin." Ironwood said to his old friend.

"Were we watching the same fight?" Ozpin asked. "The fight I watched was a curb-stomp battle in out favor."

"Well, yes, but-" The council began before being cut off again.

"How would anything have gone differently if Atlas was in charge?" Ozpin questioned. "Need I remind you that Atlas security failed to protect the Cross Continental Transmit System? Or how about the fact that my students was capable of defeating a rouge Paladin just a few weeks prior? What would the Atlas Military be able to do exactly?"

The room was silent for a moment as the council processed what Ozpin had just said, before they began murmuring among themselves. Ozpin and Ironwood looked at each other for a brief moment as the former returned to his coffee. Eventually, the council returned their attention to Ozpin.

"You have raised excellent points Ozpin, and we apologize for our previous statements." The council said, allowing a smirk to form on Ozpin's face. "Keep up the good work, we suppose."

On that note, the council left the call, leaving Ironwood and Ozpin with only the company of each other. Upon this, Ozpin face turned more sly as Ironwood was left dumbfounded. "You need to step up your game, James." The silver haired man said before drinking from his coffee. On this note, Ironwood ended the call.

 **-Or-**

"I'm going to give you one chance." Ironwood said in his sternest and most intimidating voice to the recently apprehended Roman Torchwick. "Who's really behind all of this?"

"Isn't it obvious, general?" The thief asked, leaning back in his chair as Ironwood leaned in to hear his answer. "You're looking at him."

Ironwood scowled at this. He was getting nowhere with Torchwick, and he knew for a fact that this didn't fit is MO. He was more for thefts that could net him large profits, while still being small enough to brush under the rug. Causing this much chaos and destruction didn't get him anything. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this." He then looked over his shoulder and shouted to his soldiers, "Bring them in!"

Roman swallowed quickly as the soldiers walked in carrying large briefcases. He hadn't signed up for this, she said _nothing_ about any form of torture. As the soldiers stopped besides Ironwood, he started to speech again. "I know for a fact you're working for somebody else, Torchwick. And while I may not know how they got you're loyalty, I do know this: The loyalty of a criminal-"

With a click, the latches holding the cases shut came undone as the soldiers began to open them. Roman found himself counting all the possible things they could do to him, and none of them sounded pleasant. As the cases opened fully, Roman closed his eyes and turned his head away, trying to avoid looking at whatever horrible contraption was housed withi-

"-Can easily be bought."

Bought?

Roman opened his eye and looked at the briefcases. Instead of holding torture instruments, or blades, or information on him or Neo, he saw a large assortment of Lien, all of it carefully and neatly packed into the cases.

There was enough there to give him and Neo a good life.

"I'll ask again: Who is behind this?" Ironwood asked, a slight smirk on his face and Torchwick began to drool at the sight of all the money.

* * *

"YOU BACKSTABBING, UNGRATEFUL LITTLE-!" Cinder yelled as she was escorted into a Atlas prison transport ship by both Ironwood and Goodwitch, hands restrained behind her back with some sort of device disabling her Aura and semblance. "WHEN I GET OUT OF THIS, I PROMISE YOU, I WILL FIND YOU AND-"

"Oh, please, do shut up." Glynda said as she shoved the pyromancer into the ship. "You won't be getting out any time soon."

Cinder grumbled as the hatch behind her closed, sealing her into the ship with her two subordinates. Mercury seemed to be taking the defeat rather well, tapping his feet back and forth to entertain himself. Emerald, however, seemed to be in low spirits as she looked up. Those worries quickly faded once she saw Cinder, and gestured to the seat besides her as best she could.

Hearing the engines roar, Cinder took the seat as she let out a long sigh. "So tell me boss," Mercury began, finishing whatever song he was playing in his head. "What's plan B exactly?"

"There is none." Cinder said, without even the slightest hint of hope in her voice. No furry, no pretentious attitude, just disappointment. Those three simple words wiped the hope from Emerald and Mercury at once.

Somewhere in the world, Roman was laughing.

 **-Or-**

"We might not have all the answers," Blake said as she and the rest of team RWBY looked over Vale. "But we do have a lot of dangerous people behind bars. And I think that's something we could all be proud of."

"Yeah!" Ruby said. "And if anyone tries something like this again, we'll be there to stop them."

"Yay, teamwork, camaraderie, good guys," Yang began saying as she laid down on her back, staring up at the sky. "Go team, alright, good job... So, what now?"

"I'd suggest we start training for the tournament," Weiss began, but I guess we have that covered at this point."

"What?" Ruby asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Guess it's time for bed then." Yang said as she sat up and started stretching. "I'm gonna sleep forev-"

"What are you guys talking about?!" Ruby asked as loud as she could, startling her dog and her teammates. "We almost lost Vale today, guys. If Everyone else didn't show up, we would have been screwed."

"We did fine, Ruby." Blake said.

"'Did fine?'" Ruby questioned. "I got captured by a White Fang grunt, Blake! I don't know if you've noticed this, but most of them aren't like you. They don't have all our fancy weapons or powers, and all they needed to do was _bitch-slap_ me, and I was putty in their hands. Weiss was almost taken down by a guy with a chainsaw, and if not for that mystery woman, Yang would be _dead_!"

"What are you saying?" Weiss asked.

"I'm saying we've _hardly_ got the tournament 'covered.' We go in their like this, we're gonna get our asses handed to us." Ruby said as she stood up. "It is decided then: From now until the Vytal tournament, we are going to train! Every day and every night. Until the tournament begins proper, we will spend all of our time training to make sure we are ready!"

Ruby then began to march back to their dorm, her head held high. "Training begins at 0600-No, 0 _500_ hours tomorrow! Tonight, we rest. Tomorrow, _we train_."

The remainders of team RWBY let out a sigh as they stood up to follow their now determined leader. Once Ruby makes a decision, you can't change it. "I'm never gonna sleep again, am I?" Yang asked to herself, sadness covering her entire voice.

Needless to say, when the time came for them to fight for Beacon, they were ready.

* * *

 **\- A lot of people have already tackled 'RWBY actually shown** _ **losing**_ **in Breach' so I decided not to do that. So instead I went in the other direction, and had Ozpin call the council out on their bullshit to put Ironwood in charge. It was pretty much America during World War 2. The Allies were doing a good job without us, we jumped in when they were about to win, and took all the credit.**

 **-I know Roman said in Volume 3 that he was more concerned with survival than making bank with Cinder, but we're never told exact details about this, and a load of money would most definitely help.**

 **-Need I really say anything on this. I think I had Ruby explain why they need to step up their training pretty well. I originally wanted all the ideas to be one big chapter, like how I did with the Volume 3 final, but I felt this just flowed better without the ideas running into each other.  
**

 **Sorry there's only three scenarios here, that's all I could come up with for the Volume 2 final. Though that's largely because nothing happened in that episode. In fact, there are actually very little moments that have a profound impact on the plot that weren't already handled, so I'm probably going to get through this Volume pretty quick unless you guys give me some suggestions.**

 **And with that, I have successfully posted 2 chapters this month. For those of you who are unaware, my New Year's Resolution was to write at least one chapter each month. Needless to say, this didn't go well. So now I'm going to try and double production and get out two chapters for each month for the remainder of the year. So I should be able to get a chapter out next month.**


	5. I'm So Sorry

"Have you finished organizing the missions list for today's field trips." Ozpin asked Glynda, taking another sip of his coffee as Glynda let out a small grumble, several digital files displayed on the holographic screen before the blond.

"I better be getting paid overtime for this." Glynda snarked at her boss as she was, once again, forced to do _his_ work while he sat back, drank coffee, and looked important. She adjusted her glasses for what felt like the twentieth time that day before deciding to take them off all together, the glare from the screen beginning to hurt her eyes. She then read the prerequisites for the mission and cocked an eyebrow. "Ozpin, what is this?"

Peering over her shoulder, Glynda realized that Ozpin has been doing nothing _but_ drink coffee for the past few hours, as the smell around him was nothing but. "That," Ozpin began, standing up straight behind what he considered to be his secretary. "Is one of the missions I want you to work into today's event. What else would it be?"

"The event is for freshmen, correct?" Glynda asked, taking one last look at the requirements for the mission, just to make sure she wasn't misreading anything.

"Yes, why?"

"This mission clearly states that it's for second years or higher." Glynda remarked, pointing to the list of requirements the mission displayed. "Why do you want a mission that first years can't attempt in an event meant solely for first years?"

Ozpin took another sip of his coffee, leading to Glynda rolling her eyes as she realized just how long she's been working and how tired it's made her, yet no one ever gets _her_ anything. "Trust me, Glynda. It will be fine."

"They won't be able to access it."

"It will be fine." Ozpin said as he turned to leave.

"... You just want _them_ to sign up for it, don't you?" Glynda sneered at her boss, causing him to stop in his track. "Do you actually plan on sending them on this mission?! They'll be slaughtered!"

"I'm sending them out with Oobleck. They'll be fine." Ozpin stated, looking at his secretary over his shoulder.

"First of all, how is them going on a mission with a guy who drinks _gasoline_ supposed to ease my worries?" Glynda began, the screeching of her chair sounding through the room as she stood up. "Second, if you're going to send them on this mission, why not just go to them directly instead of this convoluted bullshit? Third, how do you know _they're_ gonna try to sign up for it. What if JNPR or CRDL do?" Glynda was almost able to drown out the clicking of her heels as she marched towards Ozpin. "And finally, _why send them_? Why don't we send out a team more capable, like CFVY, or a group of seniors; or hell, _why don't we go_? What are they going to be able to do that we can't?"

Ozpin began sipping his coffee, thinking over what Glynda had just said.

And then he kept sipping his coffee.

And he sipped his coffee some more.

Then he stopped sipping his coffee, swallowed what was in his mouth, and began sucking on an empty cup.

* * *

"RUN FOR THE HILLS!" Several White Fang members screamed as large groups of them were thrown, blasted, incinerated, and bashed by the five Hunters that had just infiltrated their base.

"Crap, crap, crap!" Torchwick yelled as he got to the cab of the train and began pulling levers, attempting to set the plan into motion _before_ he was killed or captured. "Cinder didn't say _anything_ about this!" He grumbled as he finally got the train moving. He let out a sigh of relieve as he looked out the window to see the group of Hunters running towards the now moving train.

"So long, suckers!" Roman cried out, chuckling to himself as he felt his victory was complete. He then stumbled backwards, almost losing his balance, and gripped onto the widow sill as he realized that entire train was tilting. Looking out the window again, he saw Glynda pointing her riding crop at the train, and that the train seemed to have realized that it could defy the laws of gravity to its heart's content. "Oh no." He mumbled as he realized he didn't feel any motion.

With a quick swing, Glynda slammed the train on its side, a loud _*CRASH!*_ echoed through the caves as the group of veterans marched towards the cab. The group heard quick tapping and banging echo out of the train before Torchwick jumped out of the side window and pointed his cane at the group. His confident smirk turned to a look of horror as he realized that he was aiming his weapon at Glynda Goodwitch, Professor Ozpin, Peter Pork, Bartholomew Oobleck, _and_ James Ironwood, all preparing their weapons for what would be a very quick, and very painful battle.

He then released his cane, allowing it to clatter to the ground before putting his hands up. "I-I-I'd like to surrender now... Please?"

Glynda chuckled to herself as Oobleck raced up to the criminal and pulled Roman's hands behind his back. Turing away from this, Glynda looked over her shoulder at haired boss as he approached her. "Well, I must admit," Ozpin began. "You were right, Glynda, this _was_ much better than what I had planned."

"Does that mean I'll be getting a bonus on this month's paycheck?" Glynda grinned hopefully.

"Of course not." Ozpin said, pulling his coffee cup out of seemingly nowhere. Wasn't even a thermos, that was his standard Beacon coffee mug. "One miracle per day, please."

Glynda grimaced upon hearing this as she continued towards the unconscious group of Faunus. At least now she's have a reason to be angry when she interrogated them. As she continued towards them, she heard Oobleck call out from the train, "Youknow,weshouldreallydothismoreoften."

 **-Or-**

"ThereareanumberofreasonswhyGrimmwillcongrageinthisparticulararea," Oobleck sped out, standing in between team RWBY and a Beowulf several yards away. "Themostlikelyofwhichwillbetheirattractiontonegativity: sadness,envy,loneliness,hatred. Allqualitiesthatarelikelyheldbyourhiddengroupharboringillintent."

"So, what now?" Ruby asked their teacher, lowering her weapon.

"Wewait. Wetrack." Oobleck explained, barely allowing the four girls to keep up with his explanation. "Ifthisspecimenleadsustoitspack,thatpackmaysubsequentlyleadustoourprey."

"Yeah, I'm not going to even pretend I understand what you just said." Yang began, stepping besides the Doctor. "But I guess we won't need to worry any about the White Fang."

"What?" Blake questioned as she approached her partner, the height difference becoming more apparent as Blake looked up at the blond. "Weren't you listening? This is the perfect place for them to hide, and the abundance of Grimm prove they're here."

"Uh,yes,whatareyougirlstalkingabout." Oobleck sputtered out, beginning to realize just how out of the loop he was.

"Yes, doc, you're very smart." Yang responded, not even paying mind to what Oobleck actually said as she turned back to her team. "And we don't need to do anything because the _Grimm_ have it covered." The remainders of team RWBY cocked an eyebrow at Yang's response, causing the blond to sigh. "Look guys, what are Grimm most known for?"

"Killing."

"Ravaging."

"Being evil?"

"Firstandforemost,theGrimmexclusivelyattackhumansandtheircreations. Whileoccasion-"

"Exactly, killing people." Yang said before gesturing back to the Beowulf. "And if the Grimm are attracted to all the negativity the White Fang is producing, then they're probably already overrun by the things!"

"Meaning that they'd already have been taken care off depending on how long they've been here!" Weiss concluded, looking at the blond astonished.

"Huh, oh the irony." Ruby chuckled before looking to the rest of her team. "The Grimm saved the world. Go figure."

"But-but what if they could fight them off." Blake questioned, looking between everyone in the group, trying to find a flaw with the logic justifying them being here.

"Givingthefactthatthisisahighrankingmission,Ifindthatunlikely." Oobleck stated. "Itrequiresafullteamofsecondyearstudents. Idoudtagroupofuntrainedterroristcouldstanduptothem."

"Exactly, we're already done here!" Yang said.

"Oh,so _now_ youunderstandme!"

"Happy Easter to you too, doc." Yang grinned before turning back to Weiss, the white haired girl had her face in her hands, head tilted downward. "What's wrong?"

"We're not needed here, we could have accepted any other mission!" Weiss snapped.

* * *

"What do you _mean_ the place is overrun by Grimm?" Cinder hissed into her scroll, the image of a ginger criminal smirking at her completely contrasting the tone of the message as several snarls and roars sounded through the speaker.

"I mean that your brilliant plan of putting a large group of individuals filled with hatred, envy, and fear _backfired_ on itself massively!" Roman yelled into the receiver before an even louder roar attempted to assault Cinder's ears, leading to the woman moving the device to arm's length.

"You were supposed to activate the loud speakers and start playing happy music to get their minds of that stuff." Cinder growled at the man at the other end of the line.

"That stuff's been dead for years!" Roman rebutted. "And I do mean _dead_. The speaker controls were one of the many casualties of Mount Glenn's fall."

"Then get in the mechs and _squash them_."

"We tried that, those were the first things to be destroyed."

"W-well then, why don't you-" Cinder stuttered, attempting to think up anther contingency they could put into place before there was another loud roar from the other end of the phone. This time, however, it was accompanied by the frantic screams of one professional criminal. Before Cinder could say anything, the only sound that came from her scroll was a dull buzzing, letting her know the line had gone dead. "Torchwick, are you there?.. Roman?!..."

Cinder clicked her phone off and stared blankly into space, either unaware or apathetic to the fact that her subordinates had their eyes trained on her throughout this whole thing. "Um, just out of curiosity," Emerald began awkwardly, looking towards Cinder with concerned eyes. "Mount Glenn wasn't integral to our plan, was it?"

"... Kinda."

There was a moment of silence through the room, neither one of the trio seeming to want to disturb it.

"So, can I get payed now?"

Scratch that, a grey haired boy wanted to disturb it.

 **-Or-**

"I can't believe we didn't find _anything_." Yang grumbled as she and the rest of her group put the finishing touches on their campsite.

"We've always been fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time." Blake stated as she stared into the embers of the flame before her, her face more melancholy than usual. "I guess we can't always have luck on our side."

The three girls let the conversation die there, using the silence as a means to reflect on the day they've had. Moments passed slowly, until Weiss muttered in a voice low enough to be drowned out by the crackles of the fire, "That's not what I meant."

Blake hummed as she turned to look at the white haired girl, who began readjusting herself, pushing herself upright before directing her icy blue eyes to her teammate. "Earlier, about... Upholding the legacy. There's more to it than that."

"Yeah... Me too." Yang added, sitting down next to the fire. "I mean... I don't know."

"I don't know, either." Blake responded. "I know what I _want_ to do, but I figured I'd always take things one step at a time."

"Well, it doesn't matter." Yang said before she straightened herself, looking over the entire group. " _We_ know why we're here. Right?"

Silence once again fell over the group as they looked between each other. No words needed to be spoken; their eyes, the way they sunk into themselves and proceeded to stare at the fire in silence once more said it all. They didn't.

Not even the chipper attitude and naive bliss of their leader and her canine companion could lift their spirits. As the young leader went to take watch, the rest of her team lied in their sleeping backs, melancholy and somber.

* * *

What was that... _Beautiful_ aroma?

At the boarders of Mount Glenn, nothing could be heard but the sound of marching, the sharp _*BAM!*_ echoed through the buildings as the Goliath circled the city limits, waiting for something. Though one Goliath stopped in its tracks and looked down towards the streets before it. The growls and snarls of smaller Grimm species almost dwarfed its footsteps as they all began to converge into a unified group and march down the streets.

The Goliath lifted its trunk in the direction of the city and began smelling the air, and realized what they had sensed before it had. Self-doubt, loneliness, and the faint echos of envy and hatred. It scent was strong, but small, so the group couldn't have been bigger than three or five.

Oh, so the humans couldn't wait to die? They had to visit the Grimm instead of the reverse?

So be it.

The Goliath turned towards the rest of its herd, howling towards the rest of the group to get their attention. The lead Goliath, bigger and sharper than all the others, looked onward towards the city. Towards the herd of Grimm marching down the streets. Towards the sense of humanity. After a silent moment, it howled furiously before it began to march towards the city along with the smaller Grimm, its herd following close behind.

* * *

 _*BAM!*_

Weiss let out a soft grown as the ground shock around her, rolling over and pulling her pillow over her ears in an attempt to ignore the noise surrounding her.

 _*BAM!*_

Ruby groaned in annoyance, she had the perfect shot on a helpless Beowulf, and these constant tremors seemed to be attempting to hinder her talents with her-Tremars?

 _*BAM!*_

In a blink, Oobleck appeared behind her, looking over the city. His confused face quickly turned to horror as he realized what he was looking at.

 _ ***BAM!***_

Gripping Crescent Rose, Oobleck quickly pulled the sniper rifle upwards and allowed to Ruby to see what he had. Ruby backed out of her scope, just to make sure it wasn't playing tricks on her as her jaw hit the ground.

An entire herd of Goliaths, trailing behind a group of Grimm, marched towards them. The streets cracking beneath their feet as they slowly closed in on the Hunters' base.

"GIRLS,WEHAVEAPROBLEM!" Oobleck yelled as he raced back into the campsite, pulling out his thermos as the rest of team RWBY sat up. "THEGOLIATHSARECLOSINGINONUS!"

"They're what?!" Weiss cried out.

"THEGOLIATHSARECLOSINGINONUS!" Oobleck repeated as he looked back out at the large group of Grimm heading there way. "Thisisn'tgood. Someonehereisgeneratingalargeamountofnegativeemotions!" Oobleck then dashed back into the camp and looked all four girls over. "Isanyoneherefeelinganybadfeelsing? Rage,jealousy,loneliness,sadness,self-dou-"

Oobleck then stopped himself as he looked over the group before him, their weary eyes, the way the couldn't make eye contact with each other, let alone him. He then recalled what he had just done they day prior, hastily question all three of them in an attempt to understand them.

He realized that he made them doubt themselves.

"Oh dear." Oobleck said as his eyes widened, all energy seeming to have burned itself away with the realization. "I picked a bad time to question you three."

His realization was dwarfed by the sound of the Goliath's footsteps.

* * *

"I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU TO DEATH!" Taiyang yelled out as Ironwood and Port attempted to pull him out of the Headmaster's office.

"Taiyang, please, listen to-" Ozpin attempted to calm the blond before being interrupted.

"YOU'VE KILLED THEM!" The blond teacher yelled as he kicked Port's knee and threw Ironwood off of him, stomping up to the grey haired man. "Those two were all the family I had left, you BASTARD!" He threw a left hook at the Headmaster, throwing the older man to the ground.

"T-Taiyang, please-" Ozpin attempted to stutter out as Port and Ironwood got back to their feet.

"Why'd you do it!?" Taiyang yelled as Ironwood and Port grabbed his arms again, attempting once more to drag him out. "What made you think THEY WERE READY FOR A MISSION THAT LEVEL!? DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU'VE DONE!?"

"Taiyang, please." Ozpin said, pulling himself to his feet, unable to look the man in the eye. "Just go outside. We'll discuss this when you've calmed-"

"Calm? CALM!?" Taiyang yelled, attempting to shake the two men off of him. "We left calm a LONG TIME AGO!" Finally, Port and Ironwood and pulled him into the elevator. As the doors quickly close, Taiyang yelled out once more, "YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THIS!"

Ozpin sighed as he walked over to his desk, sitting down in his clockwork chair, he state to himself, "I know, Tai... I know."

"Uh, sir." Glynda began, her voice filled with a pallithura of emotions; sorrow, guilt, dread, as she covered the receiver of her phone and looked at her boss. "It's Mr. Schnee. He'd like to speak with you... In person."

"Just give me a day to grieve, will you?" Ozpin asked, looking up towards the ceiling. "Who else wants to kill me today?"

It was at that moment that a dark red portal opened in the middle of his office, the harsh wind howled through the room as all of Ozpin's documents and such were blown off of his desk. Looking to the portal, the grey haired man saw four figures walk out. Two of which looked to be cat Faunus, one a burly man with a thick beard, and a large purple coat showing off his chest hair, the other a much younger looking woman with cat ears, baring far to much resemblance to Blake Belladonna for Ozpin's liking. The other two however were all too familiar. His trusted agent Qrow and his sister, Raven.

None of them looked happy.

"Hello, Oz." Qrow growled out as the portal closed, his eyes seeming to glow red as he stared daggers at his old friend. The burly Faunus began cracking his knuckles as they approached him.

Steel cried as it slid across steel as Raven pulled out her sword. "We need to have a brief-" She stated before extending her sword to its full length, her eyes were quickly replaced by roaring red flames as she prepared to attack. "- _Conference_."

Ozpin was having the worst day.

 **-Or-**

"Hey boss!" Yelled a White Fang grunt towards a train-car, two other grunts dragging a familiar girl by the arms. "Found something you might want to see!"

"Is it good or bad, Perry?" Roman yelled back, his voice followed by a metal clunk as he set one of his tools down. "Because let me tell ya, I have had a day."

Perry turned to look back at the White Fang's new captive, trying to figure out something about the girl going by her appearance, before turning back to the rail-car. "Uh, it's a little girl?"

"Do I _look_ like a pedo-" Roman yelled out before he realized what the grunts have just brought him. "Oh, god, that is most certainly bad." He then took a closer look at the girl and his eyes quickly lit up with rage as he realized just how incompetent this group was. "Why isn't she tied up!?"

"Huh?"

"Tie her up, you idiot! So that when she comes to she won't get away!" Roman yelled as he jumped out of the rail car. The stomp of his feet echoed through the caves and he walked right up to Perry, staring right into where he assumed his eyes were. "I know you guys are incompetent for a multitude of reasons, buy this is basic!"

Perry then began looking around the immediate area before looking back to Torchwick, his lips signified how nervous he was. "Um, do you have any rope?"

"I need to do everything myself here, don't I?" Roman grumbled before he pulled up his cane and pointed the handle at the young girl. The weapon released a loud _*Crack!*_ as its handle fired off towards the girl, barely missing her head. Torchwick then yanked his cane back and hooked the handle around Ruby's neck, pulling her head back to allow her to see her kinda-sorta-almost-arch-nemesis. Marching behind her, Torchwick then began wrapping the cable around the girl's arms, the grunts assisting to keep her in place while Roman did his work.

After a few minutes of struggling and quite a few grunts from both parties, Roman took a step back to admire his handy work. Though it wasn't exactly much to admire, the cable could only wrap around Ruby's arms, keeping them at her sides. The cable, cut from the rest of Roman's cane, was tied below the base of the hook, now removed from Ruby's neck, putting a rather large and awkward knot on Ruby's collarbone. "Well, it isn't pretty, but it will have to do."

"Couldn't we have use that-"

"No, Perry, we're not using Japanese rope bondage, I'm _still_ not that terrible." Roman growled as he turned back to Ruby. "Now then," Roman crouched down in front of the young girl and gave her his most intimidating face, before growling in his most intimidating voice, "Where are your friends, little red?"

 _*BOOM*_

"Oh, there they are!" Roman yelped, dropping the voice entirely as began looking around for anything he could use to defend himself. With his cane out of commission, he was at a disadvantage. Looking to the train cars, however, gave him a new idea. "Load up the train, we're skipping to the next phase." He ordered as more blasts echoed through the cave. As the White Fang began to scramble, Torchwick quickly grabbed onto Ruby's bindings and began dragging her to the train car he was just working on. "You're coming with me."

Quickly hopping onto the train, Torchwick felt the jerk of the train coming to live and the grinding of the wheels beneath him, almost drowning out the rhythmic beeping of a device in the center of the car. Looking out the window, he saw the rest of Ruby's team in the distance, or at least their general colors. Groaning, he turned back to Ruby and reached for his scarf. "You've caused me a lot of trouble, kid." He growled at her. Before she could make some snarky, heroic retort, Roman wrapped his scarf around her head, allowing the young girl to bite down on the fabric as he quickly moved behind her to tie a knot.

"But you won't be bothering me anymore." Torchwick concluded as he took off his jacket and tied the sleeves around her legs. He then lifted Ruby up, almost cradling her as he carried her over to one of the containers. "Now, I'd love to see you off, but I have places to be, lives to ruin, and _train crashes to survive_." With that, He dropped her into the case and slammed the lid shut.

Ruby heard a soft click come from the outside of the casing, before the quick metallic tapping of Roman's footsteps as he hastily run to the door. Ruby began struggling against her restraints, the leather of Torchwick's jacket refusing to tear, the cables much to strong for her to rip out of, and the beeping of the device filling her with more and more dread. She let out a few muffled grunts and whimpers before she heard a loud thud over head, just barely audible through the casing. listening closely, Ruby could vaguely make out the sound of Oobleck's voice. Hope filled the young girl, as she began grunting through the scarf louder, in the hopes that they would hear her.

She heard more thumping as her teammates jumped to the next car, dread began to fill her once more before she heard a thump coming from right between the cars, they were right between the cars! Ruby's smile grew wider as she attempted to shake the cabinet as much as she could, just to draw more attention to herself, they were going to save her!

She then felt another jerk, slamming her face against the case. She struggled the blow off, still hopeful that her team would save her before she felt as though she was slowing down. Terror began to fill her as she realized what the device in the car was, what it would be capable of doing. She began violently thrashing against her restraints, against the casing around her.

Listening to the beeping grow more and more frequent, Ruby realized what was about to happen next. Hot tears began to roll out of her eyes and only one thing entered her mind. ' _I don't want to go_.'

 _ ***Boom!***_

 **-Or-**

Oobleck quickly looked between the two threats at opposite ends of him. Between him and the train's cab was about a hundred thousand or so White Fang members, and dozens of Paladin mechs ready to smash him and his students into the ground. Behind him, however, was a train car with a bomb on it, waiting to detonate to release more Grimm to draw into the city. To make matters worse, those bombs were probably in just about _every_ car on the train. Panic began to fill the green haired man as he turned back to his students, reaffirming himself.

"Wehavetohurry!" He yelled as he looked at the W, B, and Y of RWBY. Using incredibly quick gestures just to make sure they'd get the message, he gave them the order. "Youthree,godownbellowandtrytostopthosebombs!"

A quick nod was the only piece of confirmation he was given before the three jumped into the opened hatch as Oobleck turned back to the White Fang closing in on them. "What about us?"

"We'regoingto stop this train." Oobleck stated confidently, pulling out his thermos and shifting it into its staff form.

Before Ruby could remark about how she had said that earlier, the two heard a thud from behind them. Quickly turning around, they saw Yang peaking out of the hatch, a worried expression on her face. "Hey, uh, not to discourage you guys or anything, but um... Do either of you know how to disarm a bomb?"

The rattling of the train's cars was the only sound the group heard for a few moments as Ruby and Oobleck looked between one another, as if waiting for one to respond. Turing back to her sister, Ruby asked, "Does Blake-"

"I was only taught how to _arm_ bombs, not disarm." Blake stated from bellow.

"Okay, moving on to plan B then." Ruby muttered to herself as she looked to the many, _many_ White Fang members closing in on them. Shaking the idea of running through them away, Ruby turned to look over the edge of the car.

Not wasting another moment, Ruby jumped off the car, sparking a large amount of concern from both her teacher and her sister. This fear proved misplaced, however, when Ruby landed on her feet and activated her speed semblance. In a dash of red, Ruby had disappeared from sight. Looking ahead, they saw Ruby race forward at an incredible speed, bypassing the White Fang entirely and disappearing into the train's cab.

Jumping up to the door, Ruby quickly threw it open and was ready to dash inside, before the sight of a familiar white coat registered in her mind. As Torchwick and a White Fang grunt turned to face her, Ruby quickly closed the distance between them and delivered a high speed right hook to Torchwick's jaw. She then turned towards the White Fang grunt and threw her left fist into his chest at a similar speed, throwing him into the wall.

The high speed meant high force, and the result was that both Roman and the White Fang grunt were rendered unconscious within seconds. Panting heavily as she turned to the controls, Ruby quickly scanned them for the one thing she needed. After a few seconds of searching, Ruby's eyes locked onto a lever with the word 'brake' at one end.

Quickly pulling the lever, Ruby heard a sharp screeching sound through the cave. Turning to the window, Ruby saw the train was indeed slowing down. With a confident smirk, Ruby blazed out of the cab, leaving a trail of rose petals behind her.

"Done!" Ruby yelled as she regrouped with Oobleck and the rest of her team. "That's one train stopped. Vale is saved, I'd like my statue in silver, thank you."

"Uh, Ruby." Yang began as she pointed to the White Fang, then the bombs, then the Grimm now closing in on them. "Now what?"

Ruby gripped her chin in though before she heard a quick rushing sound. Turning around, she saw Oobleck run up closer to the White Fang members.

"Allright,listen,causeI'monlygoingtosaythisonce!" The Huntsman yelled, causing the White Fang members to stop in confusion. "Youwereallonthistrainwhenyoudecidedtoengageyourplan,Ipresumethatmeansyoumusthaveameanswithwhichtogetoutofthis! Ipropuseweputassideourdifferencesforthetimebeingforthesakeof _both_ ofoursurvival! Howdidyouplantogetoutofthis?!"

The entire group of Faunus began looking between each other, shrugging and shaking there heads. Sighing, Weiss marched up passed Oobleck and yelled, "What's your escape plan?!"

The entirety of the White Fang then went 'OH.' The heiress then turned to her green haired teacher with an annoyed look in her eyes normally reserved for her leader. "Do you need to run _all_ your words together, _doctor_?" The sarcasm almost dripped out of her mouth as she used her teacher's title.

* * *

 **Holly shit, I've become much more productive, haven't I? I managed to get this chapter finished** _ **way**_ **earlier than expected. I mean, I only started writing this on what, October 1st or 2nd? And now I'm publishing it? I think I need to lie down. All that aside:**

 **\- There is absolutely** _ **no**_ **reason for that mission to have been there, when** _ **all**_ **the students being sent on missions that day were first years. The only reason Ozpin had for putting that mission there and bending the rules to let RWBY go on it was if he knew that was were the White Fang were. In which case,** _ **why not go yourself**_ **? I know, I know, 'Which do you send first, the flag barer or the scouts.' But which do you send first, Ozpin? The scouts, or the scouts** _ **in training**_ **?**

 **\- This one actually came to me when I was writing the third one. The Grimm are only ever attracted to negativity when its convenient to the plot, and only at an extent convenient to the plot. If the White Fang were attracting the Grimm long enough for people to notice and for it to become a mission, then the situation with them what have certainly have already been dealt with. I know that the White Fang had those mechs which they could have used to fight them off, but remember, a single first year team took that thing down with** _ **very**_ **little outside help.**

 **\- I apologize if you were expecting a joke at the end of this one, I find it's rather difficult to make the main characters dying comedic. In all seriousness though, I have no idea how the tone of this one happened truly. I got to the part where Taiyang was yelling at Ozpin before I realized that this was a whole lot darker than I originally anticipated. It was actually inspired by a post I say on Calamity of Tomorrow's blog** _ **long**_ **before they stopped doing things RWBY related pointing out how Yang, Blake and Weiss each have displayed several negative emotions that would probably have been running through them at that moment around the campfire. And before anyone brings up how it wouldn't have been enough to attract a Goliath, the point is the Grimm should have come knocking on their campsite's door ready for a feast. Once again, the Grimm are attracted to negative emotions.**

 **\- Once again, this one just sort of happened. There's not really much I can say on this one. Yes, I realize Ruby was probably strong enough to get out of those restraints. On the flip side, she should also have been strong enough to punch those White Fang member's lights out. Much like the Grimm, Ruby's only a legitimate threat when the plot requires it. And to answer the inevitable question: Even if Ruby survives the explosion, and that's a very big _if_ , she wouldn't have survived the Grimm.  
**

 **-Do I really need to explain this one, I think I had everything covered here. Given the caliber of the villains this show has, I wouldn't put it past them to not even _think_ about cutting the brakes on the train. Remember, they didn't even know anyone was going to be there to stop them.  
**

 **I was also going to include a few extra little snippets, like Ruby not falling down the pit or escaping the White Fang grunts, but those wouldn't have affected the plot all too much, and one of the rules for this story is that the events** _ **need**_ **to effect the plot for me to rewrite them.**

 **Anyway, I think this just about makes up for how short the previous chapter felt, given how at this point it's over** _ **5,000**_ **words long. Hope you all enjoyed, and I'll see you next chapter.**


	6. Now With A Reason-You-Suck Speech

**Well, it took quite a bit longer to get back into my usual cycle than I expected. Sorry for the delay, everyone, I was working on a one-shot for another series, and it was** _ **way**_ **longer than expected. But with that out of the way, let's get back to correcting a few mistakes from everyone's favorite train wreck.**

* * *

"As many of you might have heard," Roman said to the group of freshly recruited White Fang cannon fodder, gesturing the to the Paladin behind him. "This right here is Atlas's new defense against all the scary things in the world. And thanks to my 'employer,' we've managed to snag a few before they hit the shelves."

"That's all I needed to hear!" One of the new members yelled out before ripping off his mask, whipping out a pistol as several other new recruits did the same. "Vale City Police Department! You're _all_ under arrest for conspiracies against the government! We have the place surrounded, there is no way out!"

"Oh dear," Roman said as he put his hands above his shoulders. "I'm so scared! If only I had some sort of weapon of mass destruction to use against you!..." As if receiving its cue, the Paladin came to life, aiming its weapons at the large group of Faunus. "Oh wait, I _do_!"

In an instant, a purple aura enveloped the mech before throwing it through a wall, well into the sky line, leaving the group of criminals befuddled before a figure jumped down from the beams overhead, a click echoing through the warehouse as she landed. The figure quickly stood up, pointing her riding crop at the criminal as her black, tattered cape flowed in the new breeze. "And now, you _don't_." Glynda snarled.

Roman looked back to the group of Faunus as the police began corralling them, more officers coming in before Roman turned towards the lieutenant. A gun shot rang through the building as he fell to the ground, gripping his bleeding shoulder as his chainsaw clattered to the ground alongside him. The officer stepped onto his weapon and kicked it away from him, pulling out a set of handcuffs. Roman looked back towards Glynda before putting his hands over his head.

"I'm willing to testify against my employer for immunity." He commented as Glynda grabbed one of his wrists.

"Immunity, no." Glynda commented as a set of handcuffs clicked around the criminal's wrists. "A lighter sentence, maybe."

"Well…" Roman sighed as Glynda started walking him out. "It's better than nothing."

As Glynda walked Roman towards the exit, she found herself stopping in place and retracing her steps as she looked towards a cat eared figure, talking with a blond monkey Faunus. "Ms. Belladonna? Mr. Wukong?" She asked, drawing the attention of the two Faunus students. "What are you two doing here?"

Sun looked over towards Blake in a quick panic as the raven-haired girl pulled off her mask. "What are… You doing here?" Blake asked nervously.

"The police sent in a crew of undercover agents and they wanted me to watch over them in case something like _that_ happened." Glynda stated, pointing to the large hole creating an incredibly large draft.

"Oh, we were undercover, too." Blake said, pointing to Sun.

"Without permission?"

"Uh-Mm-well-" Blake stuttered out as Glynda narrowed her eyes.

"We'll discuss this later." Glynda responded in her most chilling voice as she continued to escort Torchwick out of the building.

 **-** **Or** **-**

Blake and Sun felt themselves get pushed towards the stage as the rest of the White Fang recruits came forward at Roman's request, the large group cheering the human on as he spoke of destruction and disorder. The only people not cheering him on where the duo as they looked for an escape, a way to draw attention away from them. Looking over the crowd, Roman began eyeing the Faunus duo, raising an eyebrow as he realized how they stuck out like sour thumbs.

"He sees us." Sun whispered to Blake as the raven-haired girl looked onto a junction box on the upper rafters.

"He can't see in the dark." Blake said as she whipped out Gamble Shroud and fired a shot, a loud _*CRACK*_ ran through the warehouse as the bullet punched through the thin metal and struck the wiring behind it. With a spark, the lights fizzled out, dying above the group, shrouding the room in darkness.

"Don't let them get away!" Roman yelled towards the crowd as he spun around, attempting to run for the Paladin before he bumped into his assistant.

"Sun, the-Gah!" Blake yelled out as she was pushed to the floor with a loud thud, the weight on her back growing heavier as she heard the same happen next to her.

Eventually, the lights flickered back on above them, the junction box having very shoddy repairs to it allowing the lights to come back to life over the crowd. As the Paladin came to life, it looked down at the group to find Blake and Sun hoisted to their feet, the other Faunus having jumped them and were now holding their hands behind their backs as others went for rope and cables.

"Alright, so what was your plan there?" Sun nearly screamed as he looked over at Blake, their masks getting ripped of their faces and revealing his anger filled eyes. "Turn off the lights in a room full of people with night vision and _run_? How was that gonna help?!"

"You know, now that you mention it…" Blake said as she looked away from Sun, a blush burning to life on her cheeks.

"Well then," The mech said through its loud speakers, stepping towards the duo as Roman leaned towards the screen, his eyes beginning to burn from the lights. "This could be useful."

 **-** **Or** **-**

As the wind roared past his ears, Sun smacked the palms of his hands together, focusing his powers around him and creating two hard light constructs and commanded them to charge the mech. As Neptune began stabbing at the robot with his tridents, the Sun clones ran along the roofs of the other cars as Roman attempted to knock the blue-haired boy off of him. In an instant, the duplicates collided with the mech, exploding as they charged into it.

As Roman stuttered backwards, however, Neptune lost his footing and began to fall off. Bring an arm back, Roman landed a punch on Neptune's chest, sending him flying into his leader as he attempted to jump towards the robot, throwing the two off the highway.

The duo cluttered to the ground, attempting to shake off the blow as they pushed themselves up in the pile of garbage. Sun sniffed the collar of his shirt before turning away from it, attempting to spit out the smell. "Pee-Uwe, I really need to wash this now." He then looked back to his blue haired teammate before placing a hand on his shoulder. "So what do you say we get some ramen?"

Neptune looked over at his friend with a shocked expression, trying to process what he just said. "I'll buy." Sun stated, patting Neptune's shoulder once again.

"Are you kidding me?" Neptune said before pointing to the freeway. "Your _friends_ are up there, fighting for their lives against a giant robot!"

"They can handle it." Sun stated.

"We should be _helping_ them!" Neptune said.

"Why? They can handle it."

"Because that's what friends _do_!" Neptune yelled as he pushed Sun, anger in his eyes. "It's bad enough you run off on your team, Sun. I thought you'd _at least_ be there for the people you run away _for_."

"Relax, they've dealt with this guy." Sun said as he brushed it off. "I should now, I was there."

"And he got away!" Neptune yelled. "The whole reason they're doing this is because Blake was worried about Roman, Sun! Don't you think if we help, we could catch him this time!?"

"The only 'ramen' I'll be catching is in a bowl with soup." Sun joked as he turned around. "You coming or what?"

Neptune stared daggers at the back of his leader's head before turning to grab his weapon. "You are the worst friend a guy can ask for, you know."

"What?" Sun growled as he turned around.

"First you spend more time running off on your team, who you are the leader of nonetheless, than you do getting to know them or on your schoolwork." Neptune began as he picked up his trident. "Then you out your newest friend/crush's biggest secret claiming that it's 'the best thing about them.' If the best you can see in someone is their fucking _race_ , you have problems." Lifting the trident, Neptune spun to face Sun. "Then you invade their privacy for _Oum knows_ what reason, and then when you attempt to make good on it by offering to help them with their mission, you _run off on them in the middle of it_! You are one of the most _selfish_ people I know!"

Sun growled as he stepped towards Neptune, pointing a finger at his chest. "That is not true!"

"Name each member of our team."

"Myself, you, Sa-"

" _Full_ names." Neptune growled.

Sun rolled his eyes as he started counting off. "Sun Wukong, Neptune…" Sun's eyes went wide as he tried to remember the rest of the blue haired boy's name before shaking his head. "I'll get back to it. Sage…. Scarlet…"

"See, you don't even know our _names_." Neptune growled. "If you were really our friend, you would know _so much_ more. What do you know about Blake, _besides_ that she's a Faunus? What about the rest of her team? It amazes me how, for someone with no sense of privacy, you could know so _little_ about the people you, for lack of better word, _stalk_."

On that note, Neptune turned around, holding his trident high as he looked back up at the freeway, following its path with his eyes. "I'm going to help _my_ friends, a shame you won't do the same." Neptune run forward a few steps before looking back at Sun. "A shame you _can't_ do the same." With that, he began running the rest of the way.

Sun watched him run off before turning with a huff, stomping on an end of his weapon and catching the red and gold metal rod as it flew up. "Cheaper alone, anyway." Sun muttered as he walked off.

 **-** **Or** **-**

Cinder took another look back at the ballroom of Beacon Academy, lights flashing various colors in tandem to music she was far out of earshot of. She found herself smirking as she shuffled into the bushes of the CCT's perimeter, looking over to its entrance to find a guard scanning the area, gun at the ready.

She silently crept over to him, her catsuit stretching around her curves as she got into the perfect position to take him out. He would be none the wiser as she raised herself up out of the bush as silent as a ghost, pulling back her arm as she prepared to karate chop the man in the back of the head.

Quickly bringing her arm down, the helmet produced a loud _*Thunk*_ as the side of her hand collided with the hardened plastic. The guard stumbled forward as Cinder gripped her now throbbing hand.

The man quickly turned around as pointed his gun at the woman, reaching for the silent alarm trigger on his belt as Cinder put her hands up. "Wow." She chuckled nervously as other guards came out behind her, feeling her mask start to slip off. "Those helmets really do their job, huh?"

 **-** **Or** **-**

Cinder dragged the unconscious guard into the bushes, looking around to make sure no one saw her, she readjusted her mask before heading into the tower. She probably could have spent a little more time making sure her disguise would stay on her face, but once she was finished with the guards, she wouldn't need to worry about hiding her beautiful face any longer.

Her heels clicked as she walked up the steps, summoning her swords as she prepared to battle the group of guards who were no doubt completely unaware of her, but were soon to be arou-

" _Freeze!_ " A robotic voice called out as a robotic guard pulled up its guns and aimed at the woman, the rest of the androids doing the same as loud, mechanical roars overhead gave way for several trap doors to open. Out from the ceiling came several automated turrets, aiming lasers sights across the woman's form.

Cinder stared at the sheer amount of metal security in the room before looking back at the robot who noticed her. "You upgraded security since I last scoped this place out." She said.

" _Lay down your weapons, or we will utilize force_." The robot responded.

Cinder let out a sigh as her swords cluttered to the ground. "Yeah." She said as she raised her hands over her head. "That's kinda what I figured you'd say."

 **-** **Or** **-**

Cinder found herself smirking as she walked over the unconscious bodies of the guards assigned to the CCT. They were so helpless, it was almost as if Beacon and Atlas were _asking_ her to upload her virus. Well, if that was what they wanted, then who was she to deny them their request. Pulling a chair out of its cubical, Cinder looked down at the computer screen illuminating a solid green light as she put her Scroll into the terminal.

She input a few keystrokes before practically smacking the enter button, bringing up a loading screen as the computer began retrieving the vicious piece of malware.

Instead of downloading the files, however, the screen instead turned a bright blue before the image of a young woman came up. " _Caution_." She said. " _A virus has been detected._ "

"Huh." Cinder said as she was taken aback, stepping away from the computer slightly. "Déjà vu."

 **-** **Or** **-**

Ruby's heels clicked painfully as she ran towards the tower as fast as she could, which due to her heels wasn't very fast at all. She looked at the entrance to the tower and then down into its bushes, finding an unconscious guard lying in the flora. Realizing what this undoubtedly meant, she quickly pulled out her Scroll and called her locker, preparing for the battle she alone would need to face.

But she wouldn't be doing it in heels.

* * *

The clicking of Cinder's heels echoed through the room as she inserted her Scroll into the terminal, her face tinted green as the program began running through the system. So engrossed in this, was she, that she almost missed the ding as the elevator came to a stop on her floor. Looking back towards the lift, the doors opened to give way to a small, red blur to rush out of it and collide with her face.

Stumbling back as she attempted to brush the pain off, she scowled at the red heel as it cluttered to the ground before turning her furry towards the figure in the elevator. "Who dares-" Her attempt at intimidation was cut off as another heel collided with her face, causing her to fall back against the computer desk.

Looking back at the elevator one last time, she heard a loud _*BANG!*_ echo through the room as Ruby raced towards her, swinging the blunt end of her scythe like a mallet at the old woman, causing the table Cinder was lying on to break. Lifting her scythe up once more, Ruby once again bashed the blunt end against Cinder with another gunshot ringing through the room, striking Cinder in the side and throwing her out the window. As Cinder fell, Ruby jumped after her, a determined look in her eyes as she chased down the infiltrator.

Cluttering to the ground, Cinder attempted to fight back against the girl, but Ruby proved too quick for her. Cinder could barely get any shots in, and every time she had the perfect strike, she found her blades slicing only air. At one point, Ruby had raced around her fast enough to create a sonic boom, launching the pyromancer even further away from the computers. Cluttering to her feet, Cinder found herself eyeing a familiar pair of shoes and pants. Looking up, she found herself looking down the business end of General Ironwood's trusted sidearm. She would have made an attempt to escape the situation, but she found the blade of Crescent Rose begin to press itself lightly against her neck.

Cinder felt fear for what was probably the first time in her career as she looked between the two who had captured her. She had failed to defeat a fifteen-year-old girl, and General Ironwood did not look very forgiving. Swallowing, she looked up at the general. "I… I surrender."

"Yes." Ruby said as Ironwood grabbed one of Cinder's wrist and pulled it behind her back. "You do."

* * *

 **\- Seriously, why did no one ever think of sending an undercover agent into the White Fang meetings when they turned violent or since? They have become a terrorist organization that is involved with the attempt to completely destroy the kingdom of Vale. Even ignoring that second part, anyone with at least two braincells could have thought of that. If its a matter of safety given all the crimes they've managed to accomplish, and how they can handle themselves against Hunters in training, then get an _actual_ Hunter.  
**

 **\- Yes, Blake, turn off the lights, in a room full of people who have night vision who you are currently** _ **surrounded**_ **by. That would** _ **certainly**_ **get you out of that jam.**

 **\- Remind me again how Sun is supposedly a person who cares about his friends despite that fact that he doesn't seem to be able to get away from most of them fast enough? I'm not sure what I was originally going for there, but I'm happy with how it turned out.**

 **\- If the Atlas soldier's helmets couldn't do their job, which is to protect the head of their wearer, then the Atlas military is a bigger failure than _Ozpin_. And don't give me any, 'Well maybe they weren't designed to defend against those kinds of attacks.' A **_**bicycle**_ **helmet could do that. When a piece of equipment for a** _ **kid's toy**_ **is better than military grade armor, the species should have gone extinct.**

 **\- You would think that there would be a lot more** _ **automated**_ **security for the CCT, given the fact that a** _ **freaking train**_ **had that and if so much as one tower goes down, it's bye-bye communications network.**

 **\- Came to me when I was working on the last one. Man, isn't it amazing what an antivirus can do for the plot?**

 **\- Why didn't Ruby take her heels off? I don't know much about modeling, but couldn't they have just made one model of her without heels, then modify a copy of it so that she has heels? Just have her take them off in the elevator and no one would notice. If that's somehow too much work for them (Which given how they made a completely new set of outfits for Team RWBY for three episodes, it really shouldn't be), then at least give us an in-universe excuse for it. What, did Yang glue them to her feet? I mean, that would feel insulting, but at least it would make sense.**

 **You know, when I was first writing this chapter, I had put in around** _ **eleven**_ **scenarios for how Volume 2 could have ended; but I felt that that was a little much, especially after my last project, so I narrowed it down to seven. On the bright side, I'm now one chapter ahead for this story!**


	7. Law and Order: Vale Division

The cafeteria was in utter disarray as foods of various types were thrown from one end of the room to the other. The playful fight between RWBY and JNPR had long since escalated to the point that it was a full-blown brawl on par with class matches, one that Team RWBY seemed to be on the losing side of. Yang had been thrown into the stratosphere by Nora, Blake was trapped under a pile of soda cans, and Weiss was unconscious in Ruby's arms. The red-haired girl looked back towards the other team, a new sense of rage in her eyes as she decided to settle this right then and there.

Using her signature speed, Ruby charged forth, using the vacuum effect from the air rushing with her to pick up as much food as possible. Carrying as much momentum as she could, she jumped off of the tables and spun into a whirlwind, barreling through the makeshift fort Team JNPR had constructed.

She didn't stop there, as she continued to charge to the other end of the food court. Stopping once she reached the far war, she felt the air rush past her and heard a loud *BOOM!* behind her before she quickly ran out of the way as Team JNPR smacked into the wall. The group of four was then pelted by every last bit of food in the cafeteria, nearly breaking the wall down even further from the high speeds they were carrying.

Ruby leaned on her knees, attempting to catch her breath before the doors at the other end of the cafeteria flew open. Glancing over, she saw the familiar figure of Glynda Goodwitch walk in, a much angrier expression on her face as she whipped out her ridding crop, putting the entire room back together. Within an instant, all of the damage to the room was reverse, and it was as if the battle had never happened.

At least until Yang fell in through the ceiling.

"Wow, Ruby, that was _amazing!_ " Weiss said as she approached her leader, a new sense of awe from her leader's abilities. "I never knew you could use your semblance like that!"

"Yeah... Me neither." Ruby panted as she rubbed the back of her head.

"That has got to be your new go-to attack from now on." Blake said as she patted Ruby on the shoulder. "No one would be able to stop you with attacks like that."

"Actually guys, how's about we never use that attack, never talk about it, and never even _think_ about it ever again?" Ruby said with a smirk as she placed her knuckles against her hips.

The rest of her team stared at her in utter confusion, as if she had just proven that Remnant goes around the moon instead of the other way around. The silence continued before Yang finally broke it. "Uh… Why?"

"… You know," Ruby began as she rubbed her chin. "That's a good question."

 **-** **Or** **-**

"Ozpin, we have a problem!" Glynda said as hurried into the grey-haired man's office, carrying with her several files.

"Have you ever noticed that you only ever talk to me when we do?" Ozpin said as Glynda began sorting through her papers. "Can't you ever come in just to say hi?"

"I have reason to believe that our enemies have infiltrated this school under the guise as students from Mistral." Glynda stated, ignoring Ozpin's comment.

Ozpin leaned onto his desk, cocking an eyebrow as he looked down at the papers Glynda was carrying. "I don't suppose you'd claim that without proof?"

"I heard a few students talking about how they didn't recognize Mercury Black from any of their classes." Glynda said as she pulled out a report noting the conversation. "So I started asking other students from Mistral about him and the rest of his team, none of them recognized their names, faces, or weapons."

"It's unreasonable to assume that just because a few students don't know them, they aren't students." Ozpin said as she took a swig of coffee.

"That's why I got in contact with professors from Haven." Glynda stated as she presented him with a list of names.

"That sounds a little unreasonable."

"The most professors any academy has is five." Glynda commented as she pointed to the list of names. "None of these professors claimed to know Team CMSN, all but Watts. So I started checking their files, and attempted to match them up with any known criminal records."

"Don't tell me," Ozpin said as he set his mug down. "They aren't squeaky clean?"

"Emerald Sustrai grew up on the streets and committed several small thefts in order to get by." Glynda said as she pulled out their files. "I couldn't find anything on Mercury Black, save for his father, Marcus Black. Sound familiar?"

"The assassin?" Ozpin said before waving his hand. "Glynda, this doesn't prove _anything_. Plenty of people here at Beacon have criminal backgrounds."

"Then there's Neopolitan, and this is where things get interesting." Glynda said as she presented a blank piece of paper to Ozpin with a picture of the raven-haired girl on it. "I couldn't find anything on her. Criminal backgrounds, prior education, family names, birth certificates. According to her records, she has _no_ records."

"That is peculiar." Ozpin commented.

"Then there's Cinder Fall, and _oh boy_." Glynda said as she presented a large stack of papers to the older man. "Completely different story. I found a _lot_ on her. But all I really need to point to are her eyes."

"She's not some Amber Eyed Warrior, is she?" Ozpin joked.

"In a way." Glynda said as she pointed to her own, emerald eyes. "I see them glow occasionally, kinda like that woman I fought back at Dust Till Dawn. She also never enters the arena for combat, almost as if she's trying to hide something."

Ozpin hummed at this as he skimmed over the file, seeing several pages of criminal charges and multiple fake names. "This _is_ interesting." Ozpin said as he stood up from behind his table. "Very well, we don't have enough for any criminal charges, but this is good enough reason to be suspicious of them. We'll run a search of their room during classes tomorrow and see what we can find. Until we find anything, keep a close eye on them.

* * *

Upon searching their room, Qrow found four things to prove Glynda correct.

The first thing he found was an in progress catsuit, which appeared to be in the process of having dust weaved into it. A mask with the suit only further fueled his suspicions.

The second thing he found were tools needed to maintain mechanical limbs, several cans of oil tucked away in the closet with screwdrivers and the schematics for mechanical legs. The fact that none of them were involved in any disability services raised several questions.

The third thing was a set of communication devices, designed to fit in one's ear without drawing attention to them. They wanted to be in long range communication with each other, but they didn't want anyone to know.

But the fourth thing, the fourth thing is what convinced him. As he held up a set of glass swords, capable of locking together into a bow, with a thin string not far from them, capable of connecting to the back of the blades. Just like the weapon used to attack Amber, only glass.

These were the same people who had attacks the Fall Maiden and stolen her powers. Now they had reason beyond a doubt.

"But this isn't fair!" Cinder cried out as she was escorted into a prisoner transport ship with her hands cuffed behind her back, rage glowing in her eyes as the professors marched her into the ship. "I was so careful! They said it couldn't fail! How did you know!?"

The professors threw the raven-haired villainess into the ship, allow her to fall against the floor and look up at them with angry eyes. "It was simple," Glynda began. "Once it was brought to our attention that you didn't belong." As if on cue, the, hatch closed, trapping the group of villains in the ship as it took off.

"Wow," Ruby said as she and her team watched the ship fly away. "I guess we didn't really need to do anything to save the world."

"Yeah." Yang said. "It's almost like the people who do that for a living are really good at their job or something… So now what you guys wanna do?"

 **-** **Or** **-**

"You…" Penny muttered as she hid her hands, staring into the worry-filled eyes of Ruby. "You're my friend, right? You promise you're my friend?"

"I promise." Ruby reaffirmed as she stepped forwards, placing her hand on her chest over her heart.

Penny shivered slightly as she looked back down at her hands once more, worry filling her as she realized that once she did this, there would be no turning back. "Ruby." She began silently as she opened her hands to the girl, revealing metal with several crevasses and openings, wires and servos running under them. "I'm... Not a real girl." Ruby stared at her friend's hands for a moment before looking back up at her.

A moment of silence was exchanged between the duo.

"Oh," Ruby said as she started looking around. "Oh, you were expecting more of a reaction, weren't you?" Penny cocked an eyebrow as she nodded before Ruby waved a hand to her quickly. "Sorry, sorry, go again. I _promise_ I'll do it right this time."

"I'm…" Penny said as she brought her hands up again, a more confused expression on her face as she went over the scene again. "Not a real girl?"

"Audible gasp! Shock!" Ruby said as she began making exaggerated gestures. "Horror! _Denial!_ "

Penny stared at her friend as she went over what could only be described as every reaction to every plot twist _ever_ , over-dramatically at that as she spun around and continued to list off the various emotions and reactions she was totally having at that exact moment. "Ruby…"

"An indescribable sense of betray!"

"Ruby…"

"Uncertainty! Misunderstandings!"

"Ruby!"

"Inability to exce-Yeah, I knew the whole time." Ruby said, dropping the persona as she looked back to her now _very_ confused friend.

"Wh-when did you find out!?" Penny asked.

"Well, I had my suspensions when we first met," Ruby began. "But I think my suspicions really started to kick in when _swords came out of your back and you could telekinetically control them!_ "

"Wh-why didn't you say anything!?" Penny asked.

"It's not exactly something you can just bring up." Ruby said. "It's like saying, 'Oh hey, you're a Faunus, aren't you?' Do you know how _racist_ that sounds?"

"Well… Yeah." Penny sighed.

"Besides, I figured there was a reason you were hiding it from us." Ruby concluded.

"… So…" Penny began as she twiddled her fingers, drawing out the single syllable as long as she could. "… Are we still friends?"

"Of course, we are." Ruby said as she pulled Penny into a hug. "Why wouldn't we be? You've got a heart and a soul; I can feel it."

Penny felt a sigh of relieve escape her nose as she returned the hug, carefully placing her arms around the red-haired girl as she felt her eyes fall shut. If she could cry, she would cry of river from tears of pure joy.

"Plus," Ruby said as she looked up to a corner of one of the nondescript buildings. "You're kinda my fetish now."

"What's a fetish?" Penny asked as she began rubbing circles into Ruby's back.

"Okay, how to explain this." Ruby muttered as she narrowed her eyes. "Do you know what sex is?"

"Okaythat'senoughhugging!" Penny sputtered out as she pushed Ruby away from herself, feeling her cheeks begin to burn as resistors glowed to life. She didn't even know she could blush.

 **-** **Or** **-**

A loud bang echoed through the dance club as the doors swung open ferociously, throwing Junior's men through the air to the other ends of the club. Several more of Junior's men raced towards the entrance, guns drawn as they prepared to greet their intruder. Their aim was shaky and unsettled as they recognized the blond hair and mischievous grin of their assaulting.

Yang Xiao Long had returned.

' _Oh no, not again._ ' Junior thought as he tapped his nearest man. He then leaned in closer to the goon's ear and whispered, "Call the police. I'll keep her busy." With that, the goon ran towards the back of the club, disappearing behind the bar as Junior marched towards the front of the mass of guns, towards the blond woman who had ruined the place last time. "Blondie, you're here. Why?"

" _You_ still owe me a drink." Yang joked as she grabbed Junior by the arm and dragged him back towards his bar. "But that's beside the point, I need you to give me information."

"Are you going to wreck the place if I can't tell you what I don't know _again_?" Junior asked with venom.

"Why yes," Yang said as she tugged on his tie. "I _am_."

Swallowing quickly, Junior looked back at the door, realizing it would be quite a while before the police showed up. "I-I'll tell you everything I now and then some."

* * *

"And that's when we realized that they're only one thing cooler than having warehouses as our bases." Junior explained as he polished on of his many glasses. "Having a _waterpark_ as your base. No one would ever think to look for a criminal empire there, and if they did, there was _plenty_ of civilians to scare off any guns. But then _that jerk_ somehow managed to bur-"

"Okay, okay, Junior." Yang growled as her eyes glowed red, sending a surge of fear through the man. "When you said you'd tell me everything you knew and then some, I thought I'd be getting something _useful!_ "

"H-hey, I just wanted to make sure we had all our bases covered." Junior stuttered out as he put his hand up, dropping the glass with a crack. "This way you can figure out where he's most likely to be-" Junior found his words trailing off as the sound of sirens poured in through the doors. He let out a sigh of relieve as he leaned against the rack behind him. "Finally, I didn't know how much longer I could keep that up." He muttered.

"What the…" Yang muttered as she started looking around the bar. "Who called the police."

"Don't look at me." Neptune remarked as the police marched in, aiming their guns into the group.

"This is the police!" One of the officers yelled as he marched towards the group. "We have the place surrounded, and you're out numbered! Stand down now, or this will get ugly!"

"Welp," Yang said, popping her P as she jumped off the stool. "You heard the man, Junior." Yang then turned to the group of officers, pointing towards the bar owner. "Alright guys, I know this guy has done some shady stuff over the years, but if you can just give me five more-"

"Yang Xiao Long!" The officer yelled as he and his group aimed their weapons at the blond. "You are under arrest for assault and battery, destruction of property, threatening and under-aged drinking!"

"Wait, what!?" Yang called out as she started looking between all the officers. "But-but I didn't do any of that this time!"

"Yeah, _this_ time." Junior remarked as he pulled out a bottle of Champagne.

"Now-now officer, this is a huge misunderstanding." Yang said as the officer pulled her arms behind her back. The blond heard handcuffs click into place as she was walked out of the bar. "You need to understand, he's in charge of a criminal empire! I was trying to get information to bring down a terrorist organization! It was all for the good of Vale! Maybe even the world!"

"Tell it to the judge." The officer remarked as he continued to walk Yang out.

Neptune found himself staring blankly at the group of police as Yang was walked out, unsure of what to make of this. "… What just happened?"

"She got what was coming to her." Junior remarked as he swung himself back to gulp down the glass of alcohol.

* * *

 **\- Possibly the most annoying aspect of Ruby's character is that the writers expect us to believe that she's completely worthless without her weapon when she can do stuff like that. Seriously, why is that move never used again, why is it never brought up again? The only other time she uses it is when she didn't need to.** _ **Season 3: Episode 9 Rewrite, Now With Common Sense!**_ **establishes why. Come Volume 5, and they** _ **still**_ **expect you to believe Ruby's crap without her weapon, despite the fact that the first thing she does in the first episode is kick a guy's as** _ **without**_ **her weapon. The second thing she did was kick a guy's ass through a window** _ **without**_ **her weapon. Show, don't tell!**

 **\- Seriously, why did not** _ **one**_ **student from Haven not find it weird that a group of people, whom they have never seen in any of their classes before, were walking around Beacon claiming to be representing their school for the Vytal Festival. Actually, what's the point of having the students arrive early to begin with? Why didn't they just come when the tournament started officially? Is this a thing people in the real world actually do?**

 **\- I know I said I would only be tackling stuff that was related to the plot, but I figured I'd make an exception here. It was too fun to pass up.  
**

 **\- Yang Xiao Long demand information from Junior in a threatening manor, and when he didn't give it to her, most likely because he legit didn't know, she assaulted him and everyone who attempted to do their job of defending their boss and removing an aggressive individual from the premises. She then proceeded to assault** _ **everyone**_ **in the bar and cause large amounts of damage to it just because Junior didn't do something he likely couldn't. She didn't attack him for being a criminal, she didn't attack him for lying or insulting her or anything like that. She attacked him because she didn't get her way. That's a pretty good case to land her into an arrest, wouldn't you agree?**

 **And with that, I have brought RWBY Volume 2 to a close. With that out of the way, allow us to take a vote: Would you all rather I begin correcting the plot for Volume 1, or I address Grimm Eclipse next? I've created a poll that shall run till the end of the month, so vote now.  
**


	8. Every Action Has An Opposite Reaction

**I gave you all** _ **two**_ **months to vote for what the next chapter was going to be. Admittedly, I failed to realize I needed to make the poll** _ **public**_ **before opening it (Thanks a lot, FanFiction), but I gave you guys an extension on the deadline and informed my audience to this blunder in the most recent chapter of HoodWitch. I'll admit, I didn't expect to receive many votes for it due to this fact; but I was expecting a little more than** _ **zero votes for each side**_ **. Seriously, how hard is it to choose between two options in two** _ **months**_ **?**

 **I'm not mad at you guys, I'm really not; just a bit annoyed. Though I admit a good amount of the blame goes to me for my screw-up making the poll. But since neither side got any votes, and quite honestly, not a lot seems to happen in Grimm Eclipse, we'll just be tackling Volume 1 this chapter. With that out of the way, let us proceed.**

* * *

If people had told Cardin that becoming a Huntsmen would require this much book work, he probably would have settled for being a police officer. He found himself tapping his pencil at the top corner of his paper, staring down at the book in front of him as he tried to figure out where to _begin_ writing. The conversation between Pyrrha and Jaune wasn't helping his focus any either. Setting his pencil down, he was about to get up to close the window before Jaune's voice came through.

"I wasn't really accepted into Beacon." He heard Jaune say, halting all progress to the glace planes as he looked out them. Approaching the opened glass, Cardin cocked an eyebrow as Jaune explained further. "I didn't go to combat school, I didn't pass any tests, I didn't _earn_ my spot at this academy!"

Cardin's eyes widened as he leaned out the window, trying to get as close to the sound as he could to hear it as clearly as he could. "I lied! I got my hands on some fake transcripts, and I lied!"

Gritting his teeth, pounding his fist on his desk as Jaune explained how he wanted to be like his father. That blond idiot managed to sneak his way into Beacon academy, with _none_ of the experience or knowledge needed to succeed at this school. Meanwhile, Cardin and the rest of them had to get in the _hard_ way. He didn't know what stung worse, the fact that Jaune actually did something like that for glory, or the fact that Cardin didn't think of it.

He contemplated using this against Jaune for a moment, using the boy to complete his academic assignments, but he then remembered Oobleck's class, and a lot of their classes, really; Jaune put no effort into any of them. If anything, having Jaune do his homework would prove detrimental to Cardin's grade, or beneficial to Jaune's. Cardin wasn't about to help Jaune in any way.

And the fact that Pyrrha _liked_ the guy? Everyone could see she had a thing for Jaune, why he didn't know. Jaune was a lazy idiot who didn't even show so much as _passing_ interest in her. Pyrrha was way out of his league, even without him having cheated. And now that he knew Jaune did, Cardin could say with utmost certainty that Jaune didn't deserve her.

Narrowing his eyes as he made up his mind, Cardin turned towards the door; glancing back at the window before stepping into the hall. Marching down the hallways, Cardin's mind was full of one thought.

' _I don't care_ how fun _it is to mess with you; like you said, you don't belong here._ '

* * *

Jaune found himself half-mindlessly dragging the bags full of his belonging behind him towards the airship, the breeze through his hair mixed with the roar of the engines almost proved to deafen him to the scolding Glynda was giving him about how many laws he had undoubtedly broken, how dangerous his little stunt was. Lingering at the gates to Beacon Academy as the blond walked away from it all, meanwhile, was the remainders of team _NPR and RWBY; the only one who didn't seem to be casting a sorrowful look towards the now expelled student was Weiss, who simply glared at the back of his head as he walked away.

Watching the airship leave from his window, Cardin's glare hardened as it became a mere speck on its path towards Vale. Turning away from the window and back towards his report, Cardin picked up his pencil, muttering to himself, "Ya got what was coming to you, Jaune."

 **-Or-**

Jaune let out heavy breaths as he stared down the black beast nearly three times his size. He felt exhausted, and the battle hadn't gone on for longer than three minutes. He looked down at the inside of his shield and saw the pulsating red of his Scroll, indicating how low his Aura reserve have gotten. Gritting his teeth, he looked back at the Ursa, tightening his grip on his weapons before charging at the creature. The beast, in turn, did the same.

As the Ursa pulled it's paw back to strike, Jaune found his shield raising to his side, creating a loud _*Clang!*_ as the claws scraped across it. Looking up into the eyes of his enemy, Jaune found himself smirking as he swung his blade at the Ursa's bare neck. His blade pushed through the black flesh cleanly, causing the head to fall to his feet, and the body to tumble backwards. Panting, he refolds his shield into sheath form.

Unbeknownst to Jaune, and the bully he had just protected, Ruby and Weiss were looking at Pyrrha in confusion as the champion put her hand down before looking between the two. "Ruby has her speed, you have your glyphs. My semblance is polarity."

"Whoa." Ruby said as she looked up in amazement. "You can control poles…"

"It means she has control over magnetism." Weiss snarled at her leader.

"Magnets are cool, too…"

Weiss found herself rolling her eyes before the crunching of leaves caught her attention. Looking back, she found the red-haired warrior walking away from the two, causing Weiss to cock an eyebrow. "Wait, where are you going? We need to tell them what happened."

"We could." Pyrrha commented before looking back at Jaune with a strange light in her eyes, smiling wide as Jaune put his sword away. "Or perhaps we could keep it our little secret?"

As Pyrrha turned to leave, Weiss narrowed her eyes at the girl as she lifted a finger. "Here's a bright idea:" Weiss began, capturing Pyrrha's attention before the girl left. "How's about we don't let him think that his method of fighting is a good one so that when the time comes that he's in this situation again and you're not there to save him-" Weiss quickly took in a deep breath before resuming her rant. "He'll actually know how to fend for himself instead of getting mauled by a Grimm because you were too head over heels to hurt his feelings and tell him what he did wrong."

Weiss took in another breath after finishing, watching as Pyrrha's eyes slowly sank to the ground as she processed what Weiss has just said, and slowly realized that the white-haired girl had a point. Looking back up, Pyrrha showed a dejected expression, as though it was her fighting abilities that had just been ridiculed instead of her leader's. "Can we at least wait until later?" Pyrrha asked, approached Weiss. "When Cardin's not around?"

Humming to herself, Weiss looked back at the two young-men as Jaune began to walk away before looking back and Pyrrha. The girl in white was suddenly illuminated by the white glow of her glyph as it surrounded her feet. "Nope." She said, before launching towards Jaune.

 **-Or-**

"Stop that Faunus!" A sailor yelled as he and his buddy gave chase to a blond boy with a golden tail quickly jumping off of the ship, preforming a series of front flips before wrapping his tail around a light pole, peeling a banana as he did so.

"Stop right there you no-good stowaway!" One of the sailors called out.

"A no-good stowaway would have been caught." The monkey-Faunus yelled back. "I'm a great stowaway!" Turning away from the sailors, the blond's eyes widened before he quickly swung out of the way of a rock sailing towards him, looking down at the detective that had thrown it.

"Alright, get down here this instant!" Throwing the peel at the detective's face, the monkey-boy quickly swung on top of the light pole, laughing as he did so before jumping off towards the streets, the detective quickly rubbing the piece of trash off his face before giving chase. As the blond ran down the streets, he looked over at the group of girls he was passing, though the only one he was really focusing on was a raven-haired girl. He gave a girl a quick wink before putting on an extra burst of speed.

He then found himself face down on the pavement, rubbing his now throbbing nose as the detective caught up with him. Looking back up, he heard the clicking of heels as the white-haired girl moved her foot back into its original position, out of his previous path.

"Thank you, ma'am." The detective nodded towards the girl as he brought the monkey-boy's hands behind his back.

"None are necessary." She responded as the blond was hoisted to his feet, the raven-haired girl glaring at the white-head the whole time. "I wasn't about to let a criminal run free."

"Uh, Weiss." Yang began as the Faunus stowaway was dragged towards a police car. "Doesn't this count as sabotaging the competition?"

Weiss cocked an eyebrow at Yang's comment before crossing her arms, holding up a finger as her eyes sharped. "He just came in as a stowaway on a cargo ship delivering various fruits and goods, not as a student with all of the other representatives for their schools. He was the only one coming off the ship, meaning that he wasn't with any sort of team _from_ any of those schools. There is _no evidence_ that he was here to fight in the Vytal Festival Tournament."

"… Yeah, I guess that's true." Yang mumbled as she gripped her chin, looking back at the boat the stowaway had come from.

"And even if he _was_ a Hunter-in-training, _he was still breaking the law_." Weiss exclaimed, putting as much emphasis on the last half of the sentence as she could without yelling. "It's shame on him for doing something clearly illegal." Upon hearing this, Blake's glare at the girl waned as she looked down at the pavement, realizing the Schnee was right about that Faunus.

There was an awkward silence between the group before Ruby began tapping her tones into the pavement. "… So… Where are the other competitors showing up?"

 **-Or-**

Blake looked up at the bronze statue of the great hero of Vale with weary eyes. She had just blown it big time, she had just revealed to her team that she wasn't only a Faunus, but an ex-White Fang member. The cat-ears they might have been able to look past, but the fact that she had actually worked with, and _defended_ a pack of murderers? They'd never forgive her.

Her ears ached as she slowly reached up above her head and unwrapped the ribbon concealing her black ears, allowing the cool night air to tickle them between their hairs as she looked back down at the footnotes. She felt like crying as she gave the letters engraved into the metal plate no mind.

"I knew you'd look better without the bow!"

Jumping, Blake quickly turned around to see the blond Faunus from earlier giving her a slight wave as he walked towards her, a silly grin on his face as he failed to realize how Blake was panicking on the inside about how she hadn't noticed him at all.

"Did you… Follow me all the way here?!" Blake screeched, eyes twitching as he gave her a thumb's-up.

"Yep." He said, popping his P as he approached her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Name's Sun. How's about we blow this pop stand and find a place to stay? Give you and your friends some time to calm down after that argument."

* * *

"So you followed a girl back to where she lived, ease dropped on her conversations with her team, and expected her to go on a date with you and spend a night with you without any sort of adult supervision?" Weiss counted off as she glared at the monkey tied to the statue with black ribbons.

"I was trying to be nice!" Sun cried out as he struggled against the make-shift ropes. Those things were surprisingly strong.

"You _stalked_ her!" Weiss cried out as she gritted her teeth, causing Sun to larch back in fear. "If that's what you consider nice, then I'd _hate to see cruel!_ "

"Should we help him?" Yang asked before Weiss turned away from the Faunus.

"I say we leave him here."

"Because he's a Faunu-"

"Because he's a stalker!" Weiss called out before pushing past Yang and her sister. "Come on guys, we need to find Blake."

 **-Or-**

Roman Torchwick was almost mesmerized by the way that little ginger was completely destroying his troops. True, the White Fang weren't exactly the most well trained group of criminals, a strong gust of wind could probably knock them on their asses; but this girl was throwing around eight different swords, slicing through several weapons, armors, and even _airships_ before firing off a laser at another. Roman managed to shake the thoughts about how amazing she was out his head as he tightened his grip on his cane.

"These kids just keep getting weirder." He commented to himself as he hooked his cane on the handle of the shutter. In an instant, however, the cane was gone, and he was thrown out of the ship. The familiar smell of roses filled the air as he was quickly slammed against a shipping container face first.

"Bet you've missed the original nuisance." Ruby commented as she quickly blurred back into the ship and knocked out the pilots, quickly grabbing some ropes to tie up Torchwick.

As Roman tumbled to the ground, he looked up at the triumphant, pale face of the red-girl who had begun to prove herself to be quite the pain in his side as she placed a foot on his shoulder. "Bet you thought that one measly shot would have been enough to take me out of the fight. Or that I would have been too distracted by my new friend as you escaped. But _nope_! I'll still kick your ass, no matter how much of a Mary Sue my friends are!"

Roman couldn't help but roll his eyes as Ruby talked more towards the audience than she did to the criminal she had just captured. "I should _really_ rethink my career."

* * *

\- **If you actually stop to think about it, Cardin's on the** _ **losing**_ **end of the stick by blackmailing Jaune. Jaune's been shown to slack off in and out of class, and we have no reason to assume he's doing well in** _ **any**_ **of them. Cardin could probably get better scores on his assignments if he didn't turn them in than by having Jaune work on them. Either that, or this was a round-about way for Cardin to help Jaune improve, which sounds** _ **radically**_ **out of character. Also, from what I've read online, the show's on its fifth volume, and Jaune _still_ hasn't faced any consequences for cheating. In fact, so far, he's only been _rewarded_ for it.  
**

 **\- Funny story, I had written out this entire chapter, realized I might have been stuffing a few too many scenarios in here before separating Volume 1 into two chapters, finished finalizing what I wanted, and then realized I had completely forgotten** _ **this moment**_ **. Seriously, why does Pyrrha think not telling Jaune he wasn't using his shield right, and that he would have** _ **died**_ **if not for her, would help him improve his fighting abilities. What that moment does is give Jaune the idea that he wasn't doing anything wrong, and he doesn't need to worry about actually** _ **trying**_ **to be defensive. Without Pyrrha, Jaune would be dead. The fact that he wasn't killed between Volume 2 and Volume 5 completely defies the odds, but** _ **not in a good way**_ **.**

 **\- Man, it's great to know that Weiss was racist against Faunus and hates the criminally insane, and that Ruby is a young, simple soul, and that Blake left a terrorist organization after they got too extreme,** _ **but none of them have a problem with a Faunus breaking the law**_ **. I can get Yang, I mean, she has an entire trailer where she assaults a man, his employees trying to do their jobs, and wrecks his nightclub just because he didn't tell her something he** _ **didn't know**_ **, but everyone else? If you want to go with what they were trying to with Weiss's racism, then having her trip Sun would be a totally** _ **in**_ **character and something that should have happened. Even then, you'd think Ruby would try to stop him. Nobody taking issue with Sun breaking the law is** _ **massively**_ **out of character for them.**

 **\- Remember the discourse that sparked from Volume 4 when it was revealed that Sun had been stalking Blake for who knows how long? Yeah, we really should have seen that coming a mile away. When you think about it, Sun's actually rather creepy with the way he's interested in Blake. At least in Volume 4, you could make the argument that he thought she was going to fight the White Fang and wanted to give her backup. I mean, it doesn't justify what he did, but it sure is a better motivation than him following her back to Beacon because she** _ **looks pretty!**_ _ **RWBY**_ **does an amazing job at portraying its bad guys as bad guys, it also does an amazing job at portraying its** _ **good guys**_ **as bad guys. Also, why did team RWBY wait two days before beginning to search for Blake? I could get Weiss, but Ruby and Yang?  
**

 **\- You know, it's weird, it's almost as if when you establish that Ruby can stand and show no signs that she can't fight to stop the bad guys, the fans expect her to** _ **fight to stop the bad guys**_ **. Seriously, why wasn't Ruby** _ **doing anything**_ **? Why was she so focused on the fact that Penny can use swords in a way that I'm surprised isn't** _ **normal**_ **by Remnant's standards.** _ **You need to establish the status quo before you give us the exception!**_ **Why is it that Ruby never shows any interest in actually doing** _ **anything**_ **to stop the baddies before it's too late? What, is she a double agent or something?**

 **And with that, we have begun to establish how** _ **RWBY**_ **'s first volume could have been its** _ **last**_ **volume, and how the villains' plans could have been over before they** _ **truly began**_ **. But we're not done yet, folks. Once we get back to this story, we put the final nails in the coffin for Volume 1. And boy, did it give me a lot to work with, considering its run time.**


	9. Witty Title Relevent to the Chapter

The cool night air nipped at Roman's face with every step as he and his recently hired goons marched down the night, shrouded in darkness before leaving the alleyway, basking in the light seeping out of the store. His emerald eyes traced the letters on the sign above the door, _Dust Till Dawn_ ; a small shop with few employees, but they made up for that with long hours.

Smirking, Roman pushed the door open, allowing himself and his men to pour in to the store like floodwaters as he approached the desk, snuffing out his cigarette as he approached the old man behind the counter. Upon seeing the orange hairs falling out from under his bowler hat, the man froze.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a Dust store open this late?" Roman asked, more trying to start a conversation than anything, going by the tone of his voice.

"Pl-please, don't hurt me." The man stuttered out, raising his hands above his head as he took a step away from the counter before stopping. "I'll-I'll give you all the money I have, I-"

"No no, we're not here to take your money." Roman said, pulling out a wad of leather from one of his coat's many pockets. "In fact, quite the opposite, we're here to _give_ you money."

"Wh-what?"

"It's a store, and I need Dust." Roman said as he began pulling out more wallets. "I want to buy this Dust. Money is no object."

* * *

"Where did you get all of _that_?!" Cinder gawked as Roman and the rest of his men walked back into the warehouse, arms full of glowing crystals and containers.

"The store." Roman said as he set down his score, rolling his shoulders as soon as the weight was taken off of them. "If they're going to sell this stuff legally, there's no need to get it _illegally_."

"That… Makes sense I guess." Mercury muttered to himself as Emerald continued to stare on, wide eyed.

"B-but where did you get the _money_ for all this?" Emerald asked. Dust may be legal, but it was still expensive as all hell.

"That reminds me," Roman said before chucking a sets of wallets towards the trio of villains. "Thanks for the lone." He quipped before he looked back over the pile of Dust crystals he had lugged in.

Cinder turned her attention from the large amount of energy propellant to the pieces of empty leather in her hands before scowling at Torchwick, clicking her tongue in annoyance. "Whatever, you got our Dust: And didn't draw any unwanted attention, correct?" Roman gave her a quick nod before the raven-haired woman put her hands behind her back. "Excellent. The plan is moving along smoothly. Excellent work, Torchwick." The clicking of her heels echoed throughout the warehouse as Cinder strutted away from her hired help. At this rate, they might make it to phase two sooner than expected.

 **-Or-**

Roman found himself panting as he made his way to the other end of the rooftop, peering over the edge to get a quick view of the Bullhead he would be escaping in before looking over his shoulder. In a blink, the girl in red was there, holding up her crimson blade as if to intimidate him. As he muttered to himself about how persistent the girl was, she spread her weight out, ready to launch at him to do who-knows what before the roar of the bullhead's engines roared over the building. The ship itself pulled up into view before leveling out with the edge.

"'Bout time." Roman snarked as he quickly stepped onto the ship before something collided with his back. In an instant, he was thrown to the other end, almost threatening to fall out of the ship before he was yanked back in by his coat and thrown against the wall, producing a loud _*Thunk*_ that echoed out of the ship.

Losing his grip on his cane, he found it quickly vanish as the red-haired girl quickly pointed the weapon at the pilot, glaring her silver-eyes at his accomplish. "Land this thing, _now_!"

Hissing, Cinder quickly flicked her wrist over her shoulder, attempting to send a fireball at the red-haired girl before the Huntress-in-training quickly took aim and pulled the trigger. A red flare shot out of the stock and collided with Cinder's wrist, producing a small blast as Cinder's arm was thrown forward. The fireball she had been forming pushed through the controls and melted most of the components, whatever beeping it had caused quickly ceased as the whirl of the engines quickly died, the airship beginning to tilt as it crashed into the building.

* * *

Sipping his coffee, the Kryptonian looked over at the Dark Knight sitting across from him, the look in his eyes growing more serious as he put a hand up. "And so I said, 'Seriously? You can't hurt me with that gun. You know why?'" Setting down his cup, he threw his hands into the air and exclaimed, "'Because I'm Super-'"

His boast was cut off by the crashing of an airship outside of their window, shaking the entire building as the metal deformed and warped itself upon contact with the pavement, leaving large cracks running through the streets. The two heroes looked out at the crash before looking back to each other. "Wow, that doesn't happen every day."

"Yeah." Batman said as he leaned back in his chair. "Not even the Joker's crazy enough to use a helicopter as an escape route around these parts."

 **-Or-**

Ruby ducked under another fire blast, the roar of the flames above her almost muted by the pounding of her heart as she looked back up at the airship it had come from, the figure throwing the fire shrouded in shadows, illuminated only by the lights in her eyes as she prepared to attack the trainee and Huntress once more.

Scoffing, Glynda flicked out her riding crop before readjusting her glasses back into the same position they had always been in. Raising the whip towards the ship, the aircraft became illuminated by a purple glow, catching both the pyromancer and the pilot of guard.

With a quick motion, Glynda flicked her wand downwards, causing the ship to quickly make a b-line for the ground as Roman tried in vain to wrestle control back before the crash. Needless to say, he didn't, and he barely managed to get out of the pilot's seat before it made contact with the ground, filling with shards of sharp glass.

Smacking into Cinder as the two fell out, Roman found himself being lifted off the ground by some unseen force, a faint purple glow visible from the corner of his eyes. Looking to his side as best he could, his head refusing to move out of its current position, he found Cinder in a similar situation as Glynda hoovered down towards them.

"Well, that was easier than I thought." She commented to herself before smashing the two criminals into the wall behind them, knocking them out. "Now then," Looking back up towards the girl she had been working with, Glynda found the girl in red waving enthusiastically at her, her face full of excitement as Glynda pulled the criminals back in. "We'll talk about you after I've put these two in a cell."

And just like that, her excitement was gone.

 **-Or-**

The cold energy of her glyphs was a warm welcome as the wind around Weiss as she began to slow to a crawl, letting herself down on the grassy dirt. She took in a few slow breaths in an attempt to ease down the adrenaline rush sailing through the air had given her before she started looking around. She needed to head to a ruin north of Beacon, and from her current position, north was… Was… A direction that she could figure out in a few minutes. Sighing as she remembered all the time she had turned down those camping trips, she started walking in a random direction before hearing what could only be described as the whizzing of The Flash behind her.

Turning around, she realized quickly that she wasn't too far off as Ruby sped in front of her, just barely stopping on her toes and leaning forward, getting an eyeful of the ground as Weiss's eyes widened. Quickly, Weiss turned to look up at the blue sky, several shades brighter than her eyes as Ruby finally found her balance.

Ruby opened her mouth to say something, though whatever it was quickly got shot down by Weiss as she raised her hand at the girl. "Don't talk to me." Weiss said fast, still refusing to look at the red-haired girl. "Don't even look at me, _especially_ in the eyes."

Ruby cocked an eyebrow as Weiss explained this before her eyes widened with the realization, remembering what Ozpin had told them back on the cliff about how they would be assigned partners. "Oh, R-right." Looking down at the ground, Ruby gave Weiss a wide berth as she circled around her. "I guess I'll see you and your partner at the ceremony?"

"Yes, you will." Weiss said before Ruby sped off in a random direction. Deciding that Ruby probably had a much better understanding of where she was going than Weiss did, the heiress decided that it would be wisest to follow the young girl's trail, which thanks to the rose petals she left behind, was fairly simple.

Before heading any further, however, Weiss's attention was taken by the sound of grunting several yards above her. Looking up the large tree at her side, she found herself meeting a set of blue eyes as Jaune finally released his grip on the spear going through his hood.

"Um, hey." Jaune commented, giving the white-haired girl a wave. "Think you can get me down from here, par-"

"RUBY, WAIT, I CHANGED MY MIND!" Weiss called out as she quickly sped down the trail Ruby had left.

It came to an end quickly as Weiss found herself standing in front of the younger girl once more, though she was now sitting across from another young red-haired woman, both nursing nonexistent bruises on their heads.

"I'm so sorry." Ruby said as she got up, quickly moving to help the other girl to her feet. "I really need to start looking where I'm going."

"It's fine, really." The girl said as she accepted Ruby's offer, locking her emerald eyes with silver as Ruby hoisted her up. "Nothing my Aura can't handle."

"Sooo." Ruby dragged out as she rubbed the back of her head, only just breaking eye contact with the girl. "I guess this makes us partners?"

"Suppose it does." The red-haired girl said before holding out her hand to her new partner. "Pyrrha Nikos."

"Ruby Rose."

And Weiss found herself frozen on the spot, wide eyed as Ruby had just taken her best option.

 **-Or-**

Ruby could practically hear the action music playing as she, her partner, her sister and her sister's partner all danced around the decaying ruins in the majestic dance of combat, all the involved parties sailing around crumbling stone and the giant Nevermore in an attempt to move it into the position Ruby had planned. As the creature collided with the cliff, she saw the yellow blur that was her sister fly off of its mouth and latch onto the pillar across from Blake as Weiss darted forward, aiming her rapier through one of her glyphs and channeling light-blue Dust through it, creating large, cold crystal structures along the creature's tail feathers.

Launching back over towards the rest of the group, Weiss created a black glyph before Ruby jumped onto the wire between the pillars her sister and Blake held onto, looking back at the creature with determined eyes as she was held in place by her new partner.

"Uh, Ruby, I just realized something." Weiss began, looking at her partner next to her.

"What would that be, _partner_?" Ruby asked, emphasizing the last word as much as she could as she glanced over to the white-haired girl, taking her eyes off the Nevermore as it fluttered its wings more and more.

"What exactly is stopping it from-" Before Weiss could finish, the Nevermore threw its wings forward as hard as it could, sending several large, sharp feathers at the team. In an instant, the ribbon between the pillars was cut to shreds as Yang and Blake jumped out of the way before more feathers started burying themselves in the bridge. " _Doing That!_ " Weiss called out over the sound of the bridge beginning to give way around them.

Before they could move, the entire structure began to collapse, all of the stones were shifted out of their normal positions by the feathers, leading the four girls to free fall into the pit. The group attempted to launched themselves back up at the structure before another set of feathers began falling over them, making the impossible climb much more difficult before the loud cracking of ice sounded over the edge.

The shadow of the Nevermore fell over them before the giant bird dove down at them with a deafening cry, quickly swallowing Ruby whole before swerving back up, causing Weiss to disappear into its mouth. In another turn, it directed its attention to Blake and Yang, gobbling then down whole like the other two.

 **-But this is how it** _ **really**_ **should have ended-**

"You want to come to my school?" Ozpin asked the red-haired girl sitting across from him, her hands covering a now empty plate almost defensively as she looked up at the grey-haired man, nervously.

"More than anything." Ruby answered, her voice felt far too weak in her throat for her as she leaned into the light pouring overhead. Ozpin looked back at Glynda before directing his gaze back at the young-girl.

"Okay."

"R-really?" Ruby asked, lurching towards them with an excited smile as the headmaster nodded.

"Yes, really." Ozpin stated as he turned to leave.

"And all because I beat up a bunch of mooks robbing a Dust store?!" Ruby sputtered out, almost too fast for the headmaster to recognize the words coming out of her mouth as Glynda sent an exasperated expression towards the older man.

"Yes, that is most certainly why I am welcoming you into a school that requires several years of combat experience which only accepts the best and brightest students." Ozpin responded, his voice surprisingly sincere as he walked through the door.

"Ozpin, don't you-" Glynda began before pausing, instead turning towards the man in a more refined manor. "Very well, sir. I wish to speak with Ms. Rose alone for a moment."

"Very well," Ozpin stated. "Try not to scare her too much."

Glynda almost smiled to herself as Ozpin shut the door behind him, leaving her alone with the girl clad in red, who was currently leaning back in her chair, kicking her feet onto the table. "So, what do you want to talk to me about, _teach_?"

"Your mother." With a quick thud, Ruby's feet were back on the hard floor as she smacked her hands down on the table besides the plate.

"Wh-what do you mean?" Ruby asked as the blondepulled the chair across from her back before casually sliding into it, never taking her eyes away from Ruby's exasperated face for a moment.

"You see, your mother was special." Glynda said, cupping her hands together as she leaned forward. "And I don't mean in whatever way she's special to you. I mean she's special to Remnant. Legend says that back before huntsmen, before kingdoms, those born with silver eyes were destined to lead the life of warriors; so renowned in combat, that it was said that they could strike a Grimm down with a mere look, and this made the Grimm _afraid_ of them."

"That's… A nice story." Ruby said hesitantly, unsure of what to say to the woman who had just summarized the story that made her so well known in school. "But I don't see why it matters."

"That legend is true." Glynda said, causing Ruby's silver eyes to widen. "Your mother was a Silver Eyed Warrior of legend, with abilities so incredible that even _I_ was left to stare on in astonishment. You have her eyes. Do you see where this is going?"

"I'm a bad-ass warrior of legend?" Ruby asked, slowly growing more and more ecstatic as each word left her mouth.

"Of course not." And with that, her every hope and dream was dashed. "Not yet, that is." And the dashing of her hopes and dreams were dashed. "This is why Pr. Ozpin wants you in his school, there is a darkness rising that threatens the totality of Remnant, and we believe that you are ultimately the only person in the world capable of facing it due to your special gift." Glynda straightened herself, glaring back at the door behind her. "Why he doesn't want to tell you, I don't know."

Glynda then turned back to the young girl, her face much softer than it was a few moments ago. "Ruby, I want to train you. I want to ensure that you are ready to fight that evil when time comes, even if Ozpin doesn't want us to." Glynda reached her open hand out to the girl, whose eyes seemed to sparkle with excitement as Glynda concluded. "What do you say, up for 'extra-curricular activities?'"

"Learn how to become a bad-ass warrior who can kill Grimm with a mere glance and save the world before I even leave school." Ruby summarized before quickly grabbing Glynda's hand in both of hers, violently shaking it with the widest grin she's ever had. "How can I say 'no!?'"

"It's official then." Glynda said, worming her hand out of Ruby's grip with a smile of her own. "We'll start after the first week, once teams have been assigned and you've seen all your classes."

"Oh, wait until sis here's about this-" Ruby said to herself, fidgeting in her seat before Glynda slapped her hand over her mouth.

"No, you can't tell anyone." Glynda said as Ruby looked up at her with confused eyes. "We don't know where our enemy's ears are, the less people who know about our little secret, the better."

Ruby pulled Glynda's soft hand off of her mouth as she looked up at her. "Okay, that's good to know, but the real reason we aren't telling anyone _is_?"

Glynda let out a sigh as she looked to a corner of the room, scowling to herself as Ruby saw through her deception like freshly cleaned glass. "Ozpin seems to very much enjoy keeping me, and others, in the dark about things. I barely know anything about the Maiden, other than the fact that she's wounded."

"Wait, the Maidens are real too?!"

"Eh, sorry, getting ahead of myself." Glynda said before snapping back into her brooding position. "But anyway, if he wants to keep us in the dark, so be it. We'll see how he likes it when _he's_ the one left in the dark then."

"Okay, I won't tell anyone." Ruby said before holding up her right hand. "Promise."

* * *

Everything that could have gone wrong, _did_.

An army of _armies_ worth of Grimm were charging towards Beacon with intent to kill, the Atlesian command ship had just been overtaken by Roman, the robots were now programmed to attack the humans and Faunus defending the city instead of the Grimm attacking it, and several of all of the schools' brightest, most able students were currently in the floating arena without their weapons, now under attack from Grimm.

Ruby wasn't focusing on that, though, she was much too distracted by the remains of her ginger friend. The robot girl was so full of life a few days ago, the two were talking to each other like nothing had changed, or would change. She even said she had a plan to move to Beacon and stay with Ruby. Now, now Penny was gone, and there was nothing Ruby could do to bring her back.

With a loud, static crack, the shield around the arena broke, allowing the Nevermore to land in front of Pyrrha, eyes glowing red as it looked down at the warrior girl, unmoving as she too stared on at the corpse she had just created. As the bird cawed and growled, Ruby realized that Pyrrha wasn't going to do anything to save herself, she realized that she would need to save Pyrrha.

She realized that she would need to save everyone, just as she had been training to.

Ruby pushed herself up to her feat, pushing in and out hard breaths as she focused her power. Stray sparks began to dance around her eye sockets as her silver eyes caught as much light as they could, before they began producing it. Her eyes lit up a bright white, and from them, bright wings unfolded, lifting her off the ground. In a speed previously though unimaginable, even for her, she shot at the bird, pushing into its chest like a cannon ball as she pushed it out of the arena. Eyes widening in fury, the Nevermore burned white before quickly disappearing.

" _BECAUSE!_ "

Looking over at the rouge ship, Ruby quickly blasted towards it, leaving behind a streak of red as she smashed through the widow. In a flash, white beams left her eyes, blasting the ginger criminal in the back of his head before he could turn around, hitting him more like a fist then it did a beam. The beams curved through the air and struck Neo in the side of her skull, knocking her down as well before arching yet again and blasting the controls. In small puffs of smoke, the controls went dark, and the robot army grew still.

Flying out of the ship, dropping a tied up Roman and Neo at the quickly established evacuation zone, Ruby quickly soured through the air towards the approaching Grimm army, once again charging her eyes before letting off a wide beam, covering the entire field. The light was almost as bright as the sun as it turned the creatures to dust, almost as fast as it filled them with the one emotion they were drawn to that night - fear.

" _I'M!_ "

Turning back towards the tower behind her, Ruby hovered in the air as she quickly scanned the building, catching a quickly moving heat source heading for the elevators, and grit her teeth. Leaving the now barren field in a loud _***BOOM!***_ Ruby flew off towards the building, fists outstretched in front of her. Her eyes ached as the air flew into them, the power flowing out of them doing nothing to lessen that pain as she carefully maneuvered in through the doorway, catching sight of the sadistic seductress that had caused this whole thing.

As Cinder looked back, she was overcome with fear as Ruby flew towards her, her face anything but kind.

" ** _RUBY!_** "

The tower was quickly filled with a harsh, white light.

* * *

"And then we threw Cinder into one of those Aura draining thingies, and transferred all the power to a robot." Ruby said to the two superheroes sitting with her before taking a sip of her incredibly sweat coffee.

"We're making sure it didn't transfer Cinder's personality right now." Glynda said. "If it doesn't, we'll give Amber her powers back. If it does, we'll kill the robot, causing the power to seek out its other half."

"Why don't you just kill it anyway?" Batman asked.

"Because their expensive as hell, even the cheap ones." Glynda stated.

"Well, I gotta admit," Batman began, setting his coffee down. "You did good, little red."

"Thanks, Bats."

"Even if the whole thing _was_ a Deus Ex Machina."

"What?" Ruby asked, slamming her hand on the table as she leaned towards the Dark Knight. "No, it wasn't."

"Kinda was."

"Actually, I agree with Ruby here, dude." Superman said. "A Deus Ex Machina is something that comes out of nowhere to fix an otherwise unsolvable problem; Like say, for example, you guys suddenly knowing how to operate Kryptonian technology to bring me back to life perfectly, despite the last time someone messed with it creating Doomsday. It's not something you build up to for _three seasons_."

"Volumes." Ruby corrected.

"Same difference." Superman said. "They had training montages, Ruby nervously avoiding mentioning them, asking questions about her capabilities and the Maidens, everything. They built up how important they were so much, it'd be more surprising if it _didn't_ come into play."

"Maybe." Batman said before glancing at Glynda, putting on an uncharacteristic smirk as he leaned towards her. "So, you want to know my," He gave her a quick eyebrow wiggle through his cowl, somehow. "Secret Identity?"

"… Bruce Wayne." Glynda said before taking a sip of her coffee.

"How does everyone keep-" Batman began before clearing his throat. "Maybe."

"Can we get back to us please?" Ruby asked.

"So what happened after all that?" Superman asked, reaching for his titanium cup. "After you beat all the bad guys and saved the day."

"Well, I got promoted." Glynda said, leaning back in her seat with a smug expression. "After the Council learned that Ozpin _didn't_ try to train Ruby to save everyone and that was _my_ idea, they kicked him out of his office and put me in his place."

"So you're the Headmistress?" Batman asked.

"Exactly."

"Think you can give me some… Discipline?" Batman asked, causing Glynda to scowl.

"Gladly." In a black and purple blur, the Dark Knight was flung through the ceiling, landing at the other side of the street outside the window.

"So, what else happened?" The Man of Steel asked, slowly sipping out of his cup.

"Eh, nothing much." Ruby said. "We rounded up the White Fang and the rest of Cinder's men, wrapped up the Tournament and Festival, and then just kinda kicked back, tried to relax while we could."

"We'll be leaving for Mistral pronto." Glynda said. "Now that Ozpin's my assistant, he was _more_ than happy to share what's been going on with us. The Spring Maiden's most likely Salem's next target. We can't afford to let them get even _one_ of those relics."

"Waits, _relics_?" Superman asked. "First Silver Eyes, then Maidens, now Relics? What _don't_ you guys have?"

"Don't know, wouldn't be surprised if we found Atlanteans at this point." Glynda said as she took a sip of her coffee.

"Funny you should mention that."

"We can talk about that later." Ruby said as she picked up her mug. "In the meantime, let's just enjoy what little time of calm we have left."

"Agreed." Glynda smiled as the bell to the diner rang, the Dark Knight entering through the door and walking over to his seat.

" _Anyway_." He growled, sliding into his seat. "Once you guys are done with whatever evil you're fighting, how would you like a place on the Justice League?"

"Th-The Justice League?" Ruby smiled, leaning towards The Bat before straightening herself. "Hold up, you mean the good one or the crap one?"

"Uh, it's currently live action-"

"Pass." Ruby and Glynda said in unison before finishing their drinks.

"Aw, come on!"

"Well, Glynda, it sure is a good thing you knew about the Maidens thing." Superman said, "And was willing to go behind Ozpin's back to prepare your secret weapon to _be_ your secret weapon."

"That it was." Glynda chuckled as she looked over at Ruby. "I mean, can you imagine what would have happened if we _didn't_ train Ruby?"

"Oh my Oum, we would have gotten our asses _handed_ to us!" Ruby said loudly. "I might have gotten sidelined as a main character to _Jaune_ or something! Can you imagine that!"

"Not to mention the damage to the city." Glynda said, slouching back in her chair. "I can't fix all that!.. Maybe you could." Glynda said, pointing towards the Batman. "You know, because you're-"

"Batman."

"I was gonna say rich."

"Oh, yeah, I am super rich." Batman said as he took a sip of his drink before setting it down. "Because I'm _rich Batman!_ "

* * *

 **\- Why did Roman try to steal all the Dust again? No seriously, there was no presented reason he couldn't have just** _ **bought**_ **all that Dust, that's what stores are for,** _ **buying**_ **. He could have bought all that Dust, headed back to base with legally obtained Dust, and Ruby would never have gotten into the fight that lead to her looking at him as a villain she needed to defeat. It probably would have been easier to pick a few pockets or something to get the money and just buy the stuff then it would be to steal it all, more expensive maybe, but easier in the long run. Besides, even if he went for the extreme here, a bank robbery draws less attention than the theft of energy propellant.  
**

 **\- One of the many problems of RWBY's production, if a character does something awesome, they can't do it when it would be inconvenient to the plot. You established that Ruby can launch herself long distances using her Scythe and her speed semblance, why then does she use** _ **neither**_ **when it can help her get to the Bullhead and capture Roman. She has no reason to believe anyone powerful is in it.**

 **\- Pretty self-explanatory, if Glynda has telekinesis, why doesn't she use it on the Bullhead? It'd be** _ **super**_ **easy to take it out of the air if you actually did something logical with your powers!**

 **\- This one is actually twofold: Fold one; it allows for Weiss to not look like an utter moron when she stands as still as a statue for two whole seconds as Ruby slows to a halt in front of her, with very defining features, before the two make eye contact and get stuck with each other. Fold two; it sets Ruby and Pyrrha up as partners. I know that doesn't sound like much, but in that series of events, we now have a better reason for why Pyrrha's death triggered Ruby's Silver Eyes and not Penny's.**

 **\- Inspired by a review by a must disgusting individual; if the Nevermore can shoot off its feathers as a projectile attack, and still remain airborne afterwards, why doesn't it do that later? I can't even chalk it up to the rule of cool, because it was a** _ **plot point**_ **that Ruby got stuck in them. Dear lord, RWBY's writing is inconsistent.**

 **\- There is no reason that they couldn't have told Ruby about her powers, and there is actually reason they** _ **should**_ **have told her about her powers. But since Cinder's plan didn't take into account he Silver Eyes, since you know, her boss didn't tell her about her** _ **one weakness**_ **, it couldn't have entered the playing field until her plan had already succeeded. Cinder's plan depended on Ozpin, and everyone who worked for him, being incompetent. A story that is constantly driven by how stupid people are, should not be written.**

 **And with that, I have successfully brought Volume 1 to a close, and in far more chapters than I originally anticipated, proved that every plot point in every Volume of RWBY was idiotic. And you know what the best part is? I'm not even done yet.**

 **Nope, see, RWBY is so stupidly written, that plot points before the series started** _ **proper**_ **were poorly conceived and badly done. And that's not even considering Grimm Eclipse. So next time, I'll be wrapping up Pre-Volume 1.**


	10. Back to Square None

_A callous old man, who refused to leave his home, is visited by four traveling sisters. The first understood his reclusive nature and urged him to use his time in solitude to reflect and mediate. The second brought him fruits and flowers, tendied to his crops and revitalized his garden. The third woman warmed the man's heart, convincing him to step outside and embrace the world around him. And the fourth and final sister begged him to look at all he has, and be thankful. In return for their kindness, the man granted the maidens incredible powers, so that they may continue to help others all over the world._

 _-And then the first sister asks how they were to do that, to which the old man had no reply. The second sister asked what kind of powers they had, to which the old man said, 'pretty much all the same, which is weird cause one would think you're supposed to embody the seasons.'_

"Pyrrha?"

 _And then the third sister asked what the deal with the powers was as the old man explained them. When the old man revealed the system by which their powers can be transferred, they were scared. "What if someone attacks us to steal our powers?" Winter asked, "If they try to kill us, obviously they'd be the first person on our minds, what are we supposed to do?" To which the man had no clear answer, sputtering out something about vaults and artifacts._

" _Wait, you're giving us responsibility over artifacts that can change the world?" Summer asked. "For having a picnic with you and tending your gardens? Doesn't that seem like a bit much?"_

"Pyrrha."

" _What kind of systems do you have in place to stop evil maidens?" Spring asked. "What if someone takes our powers and tries to take over the_ world _or something? Don't you think these powers are a little too dangerous to leave aimlessly wondering the world?"_

"PYRRHA!"

"Huh?" Pyrrha asked, coming out of the story she was telling as she remembered where she was, sitting in front of her headmaster after he had called her up to talk.

"You do realize that is not at all how the story ends, right?" Ozpin scowled, clearly annoyed for the first time in the months Pyrrha had known him.

"Oh, of course." Pyrrha brushed her arm, smirking to the old man. "It's just… Some stories need a better ending."

 **-Or-**

" _The Atlesian Knight-200s will become active sometime during the next Vytal tournament." Ironwood's holographic image stated to the crowd, the knights in question knocking down their obsolete models as they walked across the stage, their metal casings shining in the spotlights. "Now, the Atlesian Military has always supported the idea of removing men from the dangers of the battlefield. However, there are still many situations that will undoubtedly require a… Human touch. As we were working on our tanks, however, one of my men asked a most inspiring question:"_

 _Somewhere in the audience, an old man smiled through the silver studs across his face as Ironwood's image gestured down to the stage. "What if we put a man in a machine? In a very different sense of the word." A new container rose from the ground, sleek in its design, with one window on its front, left to act more as a mirror in all the lights across it._

" _With this idea in mind, I would like to introduce you all to Prosthetic Emulation of Neural Networks in Youth M374, or, as our designers have taken to calling her:" The walls of the crate hissed before separating, retracting back into the ground around the ginger girl as she stepped towards the crowd, nervously smiling as she looked across the crowd, her cheeks would have lit up red had she any blood. "Penny Polendina. What you see before you is the first android created in human history capable of generating Aura like we do. In place of flesh and blood is iron and steel. With soldiers like this, we can be able to ensure operations with fully trained Huntsmen and Huntresses, capable of making the decisions droids cannot with zero loss of life."_

 _Penny waved to the audience, smiling brightly in a more literal sense of the word, as her teeth shined in the lights as she tried to face everyone at once. "And she's even less scary than the knights."_

 _As the audience began to applaud, Ironwood straightened himself once more, tucking his hands behind his back as he puffed out his chest slightly before the cheers died down. "In order to ensure her operating efficiency and capabilities, we have decided that Penny shall fight alongside several of Atlas's best, brightest, and strongest students to represent our Kingdom in the Vytal tournament. She has already been assigned her teammates, and the leaders of the other Kingdoms have been informed and agreed with our decision. This year's tournament shall represent more than humanity's survival, more than peace between the Kingdoms; it shall represent human progress as the greatest soldiers against the Grimm come into the light." Ironwood looked down at the ginger by his ankle, smiling pleasantly at the girl. "Is there anything you would like to say to the audience, Penny?"_

" _I hope to make you all proud during the tournament!" Penny stated, saluting the audience with the widest grin she's ever had. "And I look forward to aiding my Kingdom in any way I can once we win!" The audience once more burst into applaud as Penny bowed to them, with Ironwood smiling over them all._

Ruby stared at the screen on her scroll with total awe in her eyes, unable to take her eyes off the amazing creation Ironwood had just unveiled. She was completely oblivious to the way Weiss was bragging about what the Kingdom of Atlas had just created, and how great they were for it. She was too excited by the prospect of a weapon that could talk back to her, hug her back, kiss her back. She couldn't wait to meat Penny, and more like her.

 **-Or-**

Roman was pressed up against the wall, producing a thud that echoed through the warehouse as Cinder pressed a blade against his throat, a malicious glint in her eye as she leaned towards his ear.

"You've managed to make quite the name for yourself, Torchwick." She began, lightly pressing the blade onto his skin to give him an idea of how sharp it was. "I expected you to be a much harder man to find."

Neo attempted to pull herself out of the grips of Cinder's little henchmen, grunting so silently that neither could hear her as Cinder continued. "Despite that, I feel that you could be useful. I have big plans for this city, and if you play your cards right, you can get a taste of the big league, you could run this city's anarchy instead of following it." She pulled the blade back slightly, causing a streak of light to bounce into Roman's emerald eyes. "All I ask is that you do exactly as I say exactly when I say it. Capeesh?"

Roman took in a few more fearful breaths, looking into Cinders eyes as they threatened to glow to life before she pressed more pressure onto her blade, her eyes growing even harsher as she gritted her teeth. "Capeesh!?"

"Y-yes, of course!" Roman sputtered out, causing Cinder to smile as she slowly removed her blade from his neck, letting him slide down the wall as she turned to her cohorts. Roman quickly looked between Neo and Cinder's blades before putting up his hand, fear evident in his eyes. "Don't kill her. Please, don't, she can be useful to us, I assure you."

Cinder looked back down at the ginger before directing her attention to her cohorts, smirking more to herself than anything. "Well, if you insist." With that, she put her blades away and snapped her fingers. Neo was then dropped to the floor as the trio began to make their leave.

"How many crates are there in this warehouse?" Cinder asked, looking around before glancing back at Roman as he shrugged nervously. "Well, I want each and every one of them filled with Dust within the next year. Don't disappoint me." With that, the clicking of Cinder's heels echoed through the warehouse as she disappeared into the shadows.

Neo quickly crawled over to her employer before reaching into her coat, pulling out a large wooden sign for him to read. 'What are we going to do?' It read, causing Roman to look around nervously. His lips slowly came together as he brought a hand up to his chin before looking back down at his assistant.

"She said she wanted Dust, right?" Roman asked rhetorically. "I say we give her what she wants."

* * *

Cinder and her team marched into the warehouse some months later, eyes glowing in the darkness as she walked between the alleyways created by the crates, scanning her surroundings. "All right, Roman, what did you want to talk about!?" She called out, the echoing of her voice acted as her only answer as she marched further in. "Roman! Where the hell are you!?"

Approaching the back of the room, Cinder took a look at the table below where the map should have been, only to find it left barren save a lamp, casting its light across a sheet of paper. Curious, Cinder approached the table and lifted the note to her face, quickly scanning her eyes across the large letters.

' _See ya in hell, Cin!_ '

Cinder took a quick look around the room, alert to the glowing lights on top of the containers around her. She took a quick look back at the note and then back at the table, finding a small hole cut into it, the light of a digital clock casting out of it as the displayed showed 00:01.

00:00

The warehouse was filled with the light of fires and explosions as the Dust inside of it combusted around the villains, breaking windows and walls before the whole place caved in on itself. Everyone inside of it was undoubtedly crushed beneath blazing rubble, assuming they could withstand the blast created by all that Dust being ignited by the C4. In the distance, Roman and Neo clinked their glasses together as they watched the fireworks, once more managing to survive another day, and happy that they would get the chance to survive another day for a long amount of days.

 **-Or-**

Adam looked between the three humans in front of him and the fires and havoc they caused. The blood of several of his men laid dead between the tents as they burned down. "Our plan could benefit both of us." Cinder stated as the designs across her sleeve began glowing bright, her minions behind her opening the cases to reveal a supply of Dust and Lien. "Or one of us." Cinder finished, staring into the slits of Adam's mask, his eyes bulging behind the plastic. "So which will it be?"

Adam pulled in another breath through his teeth before finding the words stuck in his throat. "What do you want?"

Cinder smiled a malicious grin as she turned away from him. "We need Dust, and a lot of it." She threw a crumpled-up piece of paper over her shoulder, into Adam's hands as he barely caught it. "Use what we have given you any way you see fit, and make sure that _that_ warehouse if full of it by the end of the year." With that, her minions stood up and followed their mistress as she left. "Don't disappoint me, Adam."

Even under her breath, Adam could clearly make out Cinder saying, 'Or it will be your last mistake.' He turned back to his tent, looking down at the piece of paper in his hands as his lieutenant stepped out. "So, what's the play?" He asked as Adam pulled the paper open.

Adam took in the words for a moment before looking back up at his lieutenant, a malicious glint shining through the slits on his mask. "We give her what she wants."

* * *

Cinder and her team marched into the warehouse some months later, eyes glowing in the darkness as she walked between the alleyways created by the crates, scanning her surroundings. "All right, Adam, what did you want to talk about!?" She called out, the echoing of her voice acted as her only answer as she marched further in. "Adam! Where the hell are you!?"

Approaching the back of the room, Cinder took a look at the table below where the map should have been, only to find it left barren save a lamp casting its light across a sheet of paper. Curious, Cinder approached the table and lifted the note to her face, quickly scanning her eyes across the large letters.

' _See ya in hell, Cin!_ '

"Seriously?" Cinder asked, looking up over the paper. "We're seriously doing this again? Didn't we just-"

Her voice was muted by a loud explosion created by the Dust inside of the crates combusting around them, breaking windows and walls before the whole place caved in on itself. Everyone inside of it was undoubtedly crushed beneath blazing rubble, assuming they could withstand the blast created by all that Dust being ignited by the C4. In the distance, Adam smirked as he watched the fireworks as the humans undoubtedly died. He would never bring himself to take orders from a human, much less be threatened by one. That was the White Fang he was trying to create, and even then, he would enjoy a world for Faunus to rule over.

 **-Or-**

Amber narrowed her eyes at the two assailants as she rained down her frozen leaves on them, the fire shooting out of her eyes narrowing into a thin stream as she concentrated her attack on the two. She never saw this coming, she was just wondering down a path by her lonesome when she came across a crying, scared little girl all alone. She never expected her to be an illusion created by a duo to ambush her, a cleverly laid trap by two competent fighters who pushed her to reveal her Maiden powers. As she brought the leaves back to loop them into a continuous attack against the two, pinning them to the ground, her eyes widened as she heard the crunching of the dirt path over the wind.

Amber spun around in the air, focusing her eyes on the new assailant, two blades across her back, with arrows sticking out of the side. Whoever she was, she didn't look friendly. Gritting her teeth, Amber brought up a fire ball, launching it at the raven-haired woman, only for her to slide under the attack, kicking up dirt as she did so, and sticking her hand into the resulting cloud. The particles condensed into each other, burning into glass before launching themselves at the Maiden.

There was so many, and it struck with suck force, that Amber was knocked out of the air, tumbling across the ground before she lifted her head. It spun as she tried to focus on her attackers again, quickly noticing that they disappeared from view, confusing her greatly before the green haired one appeared from thin air. Amber's eyes widened as the other two came into view, darting towards her, appearing and disappearing along the path as she quickly got up.

Once more letting the fire seep from her eyes, Amber devised a new strategy before throwing herself into the air again, jumping over the raven-haired woman's first strike. Lifting up her arms, Amber commanded the wind to pick up. It spun around her, growing faster and faster with each passing second, kicking up dust and dirt into her opponents' eyes. The trio covered their faces as Emerald reached behind her and pulled out her pistol, aiming up in Amber's general direction and opened fire.

Amber kicked herself back, moving as if she were swimming through the air before spinning around to face a seemingly random direction. She then kicked off again, commanding the wind to carry her as fast as it could, and throwing a jet of flames out of her hands to push herself even faster. As the wind around them died, the trio saw the Fall Maiden disappearing over the horizon, and Cinder and Emerald quickly went to fire off at their target as she grew smaller and smaller. As she readied her arrows, Cinder shook her head before putting the arrow away.

"Hold your fire." Cinder snarled at Emerald, which the green-haired girl quickly obeyed. "She's long gone. Unfortunately."

"So, just so we're clear," Mercury began, looking over at the raven-haired villain. "What did you think was stopping her from doing that before?" The only answer he got was a harsh glare from Cinder before he looked back over the horizon. "Right, got it."

"… So, now what?" Emerald asked.

* * *

"And you're saying at least one of these three have a Semblance allowing them cast illusions?" Ozpin asked as he looked down at the sketches of the three assailants provided by the illustrator as Amber sat across from him, obviously shaken.

"Yes." Amber stated, looking down at the very rough sketch of the last assailant. "Sorry I couldn't be more descriptive with the last one, I couldn't really get a good look at her from where I was, she just looked like few colors to me."

"The idea of her weapon and description of her cohorts is enough." Ozpin stated as he turned to look out the window. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Amber. It will probably be for the best that you stay with us for the time being."

"Of course." Amber stated, bowing her head. "I mean, what did you think I was going to do, stick around and fight them when I could easily escape?" Amber and Ozpin chuckled slightly at that.

 **-Or-**

Amber hopped off her horse and looked down at the crying girl, alone along the dirt path with no sign of civilization in sight. The skies had already darkened without the sun, and grey clouds hung overhead as Amber began to approach the girl, reaching into her pocket as she did so, before kneeling down to the girl

Emerald smirked as the Maiden held out an apple to thin air as she reached for her weapons, gingerly lifting her leg and moving it back as she prepared to put a bullet into Amber's head. At this distance, it might be able to rip through her Aura with two, maybe three shots. It would be a cinch. As she brought her foot down, however, a small stream of dust and dirt rose from the ground, catching the wind, and lifting it up. Amber's eyes widened as she saw this, and the sudden movement caught Emerald's attention before the Maiden quickly jumped back. Emerald tried to shoot at her, but her bullets only buried themselves in the dirt, not Amber's skull.

As Amber skidded to a halt some feet away, Emerald tightened her grip on her weapons, charging in at Amber, firing off shots as the Maiden pulled out her staff, deflecting each shot before a large, dark figure landed behind her with a loud thump. Emerald stopped dead in her tracks, taken aback by the figure getting up behind the Maiden before realizing it did not appear human, bits of it appeared hollow.

Standing up, the Knight turned around, shifting its hands into a pair of machine guns as its chest and visor glowed a harsh red before more Knights began littering the battle field. " _Hostile,_ " The robot began to proclaim as the rest of its squad stood up and descended around them, littering the entire field with metal men. " _Identify yourself!_ "

Emerald looked between all the robots falling around her before looking up at the sky, seeing a large drop ship descend from out of the clouds, dropping robots across the field. She then looked back down at the Fall Maiden and her robot as more and more Knights fell from the sky, nervously smiling at her. "You-You wouldn't-Don't suppose I could convince you that I-I thought you were someone else?"

Amber shook her head slowly as the robot stepped forward, refusing to take its guns off of Emerald as she became more and more outnumbered with each passing second. " _Identify yourself!_ "

" _Thermal signatures detected!_ " Another bot proclaimed as it aimed its guns into a bush before more bots gathered around it, a group of bots behind Emerald doing the same. " _Three hostiles detected! Three hostiles surrounded! Identify yourselves!_ " Behind Amber, a pair of hands came out of the bush as Mercury slowly stood up, a look of defeat on his face as he took in the situation.

Behind Emerald, meanwhile, the sound of gunfire rang out through the field as Cinder attempted to fight the robots off, realizing all too late how outnumbered she was, and her Aura quickly getting cut down to zero.

"It was her idea!" Emerald called out, pointing over her shoulder at the seductress trying, and failing, to fight off the robots closing in on her.

* * *

 **-Quick question, what are the Maidens even supposed to** _ **do**_ **? The most we see a Maiden doing to help humanity is offering a bit of food to a child, which she could have done without her powers. Besides that, there are several aspects of the Maiden power that make them more of a danger to the world than a benefit. It would be much too easy to steel a Maiden's powers if you know what you're doing, and then there's the artifact stuff they included with Volumes 4 and 5, making the situation of an evil Maiden even worse. And you would think the original Maidens would ask some questions about the powers they had just been gifted. The Maidens were a dumb idea to include in RWBY from the moment they were conceived, which is to be expect, cause Monty didn't come up with them until Volume 2 wrapped up production. Makes me wonder what Cinder's end goal was originally. Besides all that, I just really liked the idea of Pyrrha using her little chat with Ozpin to deconstruct the notion of the Maidens and rewrite the ending to point out all the problems with them.**

 **-What I'm trying to say with this one is this; there is** _ **no reason**_ **Ironwood could not or would not have told the public about Penny's nature. In fact, there is actually a lot of good reasons** _ **to**_ **tell them. It would help the Atlesian Government gain good PR, and ensure that, in the event that something goes wrong and Penny gets damaged during the Vytal Tournament, no one would panic. As it was in the original series, it felt like Ironwood was trying to cheat to win the Vytal Tournament, without any clear indication of why. Plus, Monty couldn't ruin that plot twist fast enough, and it's never brought up for the rest of the series, so why have it be a twist at all? Seriously, it feels like Penny only existed to further Cinder's plan.**

 **-If your primary motivation for doing the things you do, breaking the law, steeling, killing, was simply to survive, as Roman claimed in his last appearance, why in God's name would you help someone who's plan is to clearly destroy the society you live in. That moment in Volume 3 turns Roman from a good villain to another idiot in a show full of them. I know that Cinder was keeping him in the dark about what her plan was, but that's probably just as big a red flag, if not** _ **bigger**_ **.**

 **-Adam's entire schick since Volume 3 was that he wanted Faunus supremacy, and he even turned the White Fang into a group dedicated to just that. He hates humans with a burning passion, and gets very violent with people who stand in the way of his cause, humans and Faunus alike. With this in mind, if a human strolled into his camp and slaughtered his men, threatening him to comply with their orders in a plan that would no doubt** _ **worsen**_ **the lives of fellow Faunus, why wouldn't he try to betray her?**

 **-This one actually came to me when reading the RWBY Blind Reaction thread, which you should totally read if you want to see someone have all hope that RWBY could possibly turn out good stamped out of them episode by episode before they drop it after Volume 3 and Chibi. During their reaction to Beginning of the End, the user pointed out that Amber could easily have escaped her confrontation with Cinder's group and then warn Ozpin, which she should have as later in the fight, she got very injured, yet chose to attack Emerald anyway.**

 **-Here's a bright idea, instead of having a walking talking** _ **jinx**_ **, who spends more time getting drunk and starting fights than he does doing his** _ **god damn job**_ **of defending the Maiden and reporting into his superiors any information he finds, how's about a covert airship filled with an entire army? I mean, Ironwood is a member of the Ozpilluminati, why not exercise some of those resources you got there?**

 **Okay, that's six down, six more to go. Once that's done, I can finally put this to rest.**


End file.
